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The credentials of | 
Christianity 


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THE CREDENTIALS 
OF CHRISTIANITY 


Imprimi Potest; 
Josepaus H. Rockxwe tz, S.J. 
Preposiius Prov. Marylandie Neo-Eboracencis 
Mibil Dbstat; 
Arruurus J. Scanuan, S.T.D. 
Censor Librorum 
Bmprimatur: 
> Parritrus J. Hayes, D.D. 
Archiepiscopus Neo-Eboracensis 


Nro-EsorRACI 
die 5, Decembris 1919 


THE CREDENTIALS 
OF CHRISTIANITY 


BY 
MARTIN J. SCOTT, S.J. 


AUTHOR OF “GOD AND MYSELF,” “THE HAND OF GOD,” 
AND ‘CONVENT LIFE”’ 


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NEW YORK 
P. J. KENEDY & SONS 
1920 


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COPYRIGHT+1920 
BY P+J*KENEDY & SONS 


PRINTED IN U+8 +A. 


“HE CAME UNTO HIS OWN, AND HIS 
OWN RECEIVED HIM NOT” 


How learnedly ye fathom Godhead’s deep, 
The deep Eternity, Infinitude, 

Him that ye call the Galilean rude, 

As in the vitriol the quill ye steep ! 

Christ was not God, ye scoff and then ye heap 
High words, to prove Him but a Rabbi shrewd, 
With spell of Eastern prodigies imbued, 

To bring on lowly souls His deadly sleep. 

Christ but a man! God only lo the blind! 

The falsifier of a trusting age! 
The victim of a nation’s rage! 

Deceiver of Himself and human kind! 

Ah fools, ye wise, who cannot see the worth 
Of your own souls that brought a God to earth. 


— Huey F. Biunt 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/credentialsofchrOOscot 


PREFACE 


frequently reads that Christianity has been 

tried and found wanting. And why? Because 
it has not prevented or checked the crimes and out- 
rages of modern peoples. 

But suppose that most of these nations have 
been engaged during the past generation or two in 
obliterating Christianity! Suppose that press and 
theatre and government have often been in a con- 
spiracy to throttle Christianity! Suppose that the 
evils of which we complain are the direct result of 
crowding out Christian principles of conduct from 
private and public life! 

If you become seriously ill after disobeying a doc- 
tor’s orders, will you saddle the illness on the physi- 
cian? Yet that is what some people are doing now- 
adays. They have rejected the Great Physician and 
scorned His remedies and now they decry Him be- 
cause He has not kept them well. 

Christ knew human nature better than anyone who 
was ever in this world. He prescribed once for all 


for human welfare. Whenever His prescriptions 
vii 


N books, magazines and newspapers one not in- 


vill PREFACE 


are followed, the individual, the family, the state, 
are in well-being. When His prescriptions are ig- 
nored or reviled, calamity is sure to follow. His 
prescriptions and Himself as well have been ignored 
and assailed the past few generations. With what 
result? The world has been scourged by most viru- 
lent and malignant plagues, culminating in the 
World War. Christianity has not failed, but man- 
kind has failed Christianity: And the only salva- 
tion for the world is a return to Christ, the Great 
Physician of mankind, and to Christianity, His sav- 
ing prescription. 

Knowing that this is an age of indifference and 
antagonism to religion, I have endeavored in the 
following treatise to meet an indifferent and antag- 
onistic world with a statement of Christianity’s case 
which should appeal to such conditions of mind. 
All I ask is a fair hearing. The inherent merits of 
Christianity will do the rest. 

In the past Christianity faced worse conditions 
than confront us today. When Hun and Vandal 
and Goth swept down through Europe and made a 
desert of it, Christianity took these barbarians and 
fashioned them into the civilized peoples of modern 
Europe. A new devastation now threatens the world. 
One thing only will save us from it, a return to 
Christianity; not merely a nominal return, but the 
adoption in private and public life of the principles 
and spirit of Christianity. 


PREFACE 1x 


A perusal of these pages will, it is hoped, make the 
reader realize that the future is bright no matter 
how dark the outlook, if only mankind will follow 
the Light which enlighteneth the world. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


I. 


labs 


CHRISTIANITY THE Most STARTLING 
INNOVATION IN THE HISTORY OF 
TAI EW ORLD 00 imam eee 

CHRISTIANITY’S NEED OF THE SOUNDEST 
CREDENTIALS 


. A  JupIcIAL EXAMINATION OF THE 


CREDENTIALS CANS ames URL ADORE 
THe GospEets AS A Hisroric DOCUMENT 
Tus Trura oF THE GOSPEL Facts. 


. THE RESURRECTION. Pea se 

. Tue ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 
. Curist HIMSELF. 

. CHRIST AND THE WORLD . 


Tue WoRLD AFTER CHRIST 


. CHRISTIANITY AND Men or GENIUS 
. THs Woriup RESTORER. 
XIII. 


Your VERDICT . 


PAGE 


105 
132 
164 
185 
198 
213 
231 
242 


4 


= 9. eee >>" es ) 


THE CREDENTIALS OF 
CHRISTIANITY 


CHAPTER I 


CHRISTIANITY THE MOST STARTLING INNOVATION IN 
THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD 


HE most revolutionary change that ever hap- 
pened among men was the introduction of 
Christianity. 

There are certain changes in mankind which are 
just as hard to effect as to change a stone into bread. 
You know how hard it is to change a man’s char- 
acter. It is much harder to change the character of 
a nation, and impossible, humanly speaking, to 
change the character of a whole group of nations, 
constituting a large part of the world. Christianity 
did that. 

It was a startling proposition that Jesus Christ 
made to the world. He bade it change its point of 
view, its way of living and its aspirations. He intro- 
duced a new and strange thing into the world. It 
was so new and strange that if beforehand it had been 
placed before a jury of sensible men, they would have 

1 


2 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


declared its establishment a matter of impossibility. 
It was so startling a reform that it antagonized 
every interest known in pagan society. It aimed not 
only at customs and privileges of the people at large, 
but also at the prerogatives of their rulers. It con- 
demned passions and vices which were sanctioned by 
jongstanding custom and even by religion itself. 

‘Never before in the history of the world was there 
proposed such a revolutionary doctrine as Christi- 
anity. Revolutions and reforms before and since 
have usually made an appeal to the interests and 
inclinations of the masses. Christianity, instead of 
appealing to the powerful passions of mankind, ac- 
tually opposed them. We are right therefore in say- 
ing that Christianity was the most startling change 
ever introduced into the world. 

It is hard for us to realize how startling that 
change was. We are living amidst customs and tra- 
ditions which are the result of Christianity. Hence 
we cannot appreciate what a tremendous innovation 
it was. 

However, we shall endeavor to consider a few 
points which will give us an indication of what a 
superhuman task it was to establish the religion of 
Jesus Christ. And when we realize to some little 
extent the impossibility, from a human standpoint, 
of effecting such a change in the world, we shall see 
that it called for a power beyond anything of earth. 

No combination of human factors could ever have 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION — 3 


introduced the religion of Jesus Christ among man- 
kind. You might just as well expect to grow a 
most delicate plant on an asphalt pavement as to 
expect the spiritual doctrine of Jesus Christ to take 
root in the material and sensual world which was its 
soil, The difference between paganism and Chris- 
tianity was the difference between earth and heaven. 
To have this heavenly plant take root and flourish in 
the world was possible only to divine power. 

In order to realize the natural impossibility of 
establishing Christianity, we shall consider some con- 
ditions it had to contend with. Once we understand 
the nature of the world and the nature of Chris- 
tianity, we shall see that unless the religion of Christ 
presented divine credeutials it could never have gotten 
even a start among mankind, to say nothing of domi- 
nating the world. 

What then did Christianity have to face in obtain- 
ing a foothold in the world? We know it had to 
contend with vice and idolatry and national tradi- 
tions and other mighty forces, but perhaps its great- 
est obstacle was the prerogatives of rulers. 

The lords of the pagan world at the time of Chris- 
tianity’s appearance were considered almost as gods. 
Some were actually deified. Their statues were 
erected in the temples and divine honors were paid 
to them. And these rulers acted as gods. They 
knew no law. They were a law to themselves. 
They took life, liberty and possessions from their sub- 


4 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


jects. And the subordinate rulers, whose number 
was legion, assumed the same prerogatives. The 
monarchs and their delegated rulers absolutely domi- 
nated the people.* 

In referring to rulers I confine myself to those 
of the Roman Empire, which represented the highest 
advance in civilization. Cesar, the mighty Cesar, 
was of such debased morals that Christian modesty 
forbids even the name of his dreadful vices. Yet 
he not only practised them openly but gloried in 
them. His soldiers sang his unnatural vices as he 
passed through the camp, and he heard them with ap- 
proval. Augustus, of the Golden Age, decreed 
divine honors to Cesar, erected an altar and statue 
to his worship, and on the Ides of March, as related 
by Suetonius, ordered the slaughter of three hundred 
Roman nobles around this altar.” 

Tiberius was a slave to the most abominable vices. 
Murder, lust and confiscation made up his career, for 
the most part. The details of his immoralities are 
so disgusting that no Christian pen would defile itself 
with their mention.® 

Is it any wonder that Herod in Judea copied his 
Imperial Masters? The Slaughter of the Innocents 
of Bethlehem gives us an idea of the pagan ruler. 

1 Tacitus, Ann. 1. 73. Ann. 16. 6. Ann. 6. 6. Suetonius, 
Claud. 35. 


2 Suet. Vit. Aug. 
3 Suetonius, and classic writers of the period. 


~ MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 5 


This same Herod, when about to die, summoned the 
principal men of Judea to official business at Jericho, 
and there had them shut up in the Hippodrome, 
and gave orders for their slaughter. He did this 
so that the joy at his death would be changed into 
mourning over the loss of the noblest sons of 
Israel. 

Now Christianity informed these half-gods that 
they were sinners. It told them that, far from be- 
ing a law to themselves, they would have to give an 
account of themselves and their authority to the In- 
visible Lord of the world. It told them that they 
held their power in trust as servants of the world 
Ruler, and that instead of being free to do as they 
liked, they were themselves subjects of a higher 
Power. In a word, it stripped them of their di- 
vine honors and of their divine irresponsibility. It 
made them descend from their pedestal and fall on 
their knees in adoration of a God of justice and 
purity. 

When we consider the absolute power of pagan 
rulers, and how they crushed everybody and every- 
thing that interfered with their sway, we may get 
a faint idea of their attitude towards Christianity, 
which told them that they must obey a higher power 
like the rest of mankind. For they looked upon 
the rest of mankind as inferior beings. To be told, 
therefore that their subjects and their very slaves 
were equal with them before the Almighty Ruler 


6 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


of the world was in itself sufficient to make them 
crush the innovation. 

But Christianity did more than that, for it de- 
clared even to rulers that they were not their own 
masters. They could not be a law unto themselves, 
but must submit as their own subjects must, to a 
morality that struck at the root of their fondest 
pleasures and privileges. 

We can form no idea whatever of the tremendous 
opposition the pagan rulers made to such a reform. 
It was not only a startling innovation, it was a most 
revolutionary and fundamental change of all exist- 
ing and cherished notions. We must keep this in 
mind if we would appreciate the significance of 
Christianity’s task to establish itself as the dominant 
religion of mankind. 

Almost as great as this opposition of rulers was 
the opposition of the people themselves. The pagan 
peoples, except for their forced submission to their 
rulers, were a law unto themselves. ‘There was no 
interior restraint on their passions and vices. Their 
idolatrous worship allowed them to give full play 
to every base inclination. Indeed, the very rites 
by which they worshipped their deities were asso- 
ciated with the most degrading and unmentionable 
immoralities.* 

Every vice had some particular deity as its god. 


4Tac. Ann, 3. 55-15. 44. Mart. Ep. 2. Suet. Ner. 16. 
Suet. Ner. 16. 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 7 


Vice was open and unblushing. It is hard for us 
now-a-days to realize this state of things. It was 
real demon worship, whereby men committed the 
most dreadful and obscene acts while performing 
their devotions to their hand-made gods. 

The licentiousness of the feasts of Bacchus and 
Ceres was so great that women were advised to keep 
away from them. It is impossible, by generalities, 
to give an idea of the vicious conditions which con- 
fronted Christianity. 

If I specified the deeds of lust and degeneracy 
which were acts of public worship, in the most civil- 
ized nations of paganism, this book would be for- 
bidden the mails. Things for which people would 
be arrested now were done publicly and openly, 
sanctioned by religion and state. We who live in 
a civilization which is Christian can form no idea 
of the horrible vice which prevailed everywhere be- 
fore the establishment of Christianity. Some peo- 
ple are heard at times to say that the world is very 
bad now in spite of Christianity. Indeed it is bad 
enough. But compared to paganism it is paradise. 
A proof of this is the fact that I am ashamed to put 
in print even the bare enumeration of the immorali- 
ties associated with the public and official worship 
of paganism. I have before me data which if trans- 
lated and published would shock the public sense 
of decency. What the pagans gloried in doing is 
so dreadful that Christians may not even speak of it. 


8 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


This change in public morality was a revolution in 
the affairs of men impossible to effect by any merely 
natural means. Human effort had done its most, 
only to see degeneracy everywhere increasing.” e- 
form was impossible by human agency. It had to 
come from on high. This will appear very evident 
in the course of the perusal of these pages. 

Christianity had to tell these votaries and habitues 
of vice that all this worship must stop, that instead 
of worshipping God, such rites were dishonoring 
Him. What a shock that must have been, not only 
to their traditions and beliefs, but also to their vile 
and lustful indulgences! 

What chance had such a religion as Christ’s against 
such a congenial and self-satisfying cult as pagan- 
ism? Humanly speaking, none. As well expect a 
lily to bloom on a city pavement as Christianity to 
take root in the soil of paganism. And yet it took 
root! And after two thousand years, it is the most 
vigorous plant in the entire world. It has become 
a tree, whose branches have spread out into every na- 
tion of the world. 

Something more than natural power must account 
for this phenomenon. What it is we shall see fur 

5Tac. Ann. 3. 55-15. 44. Mart. Ep. 2. Suet. Nero. Sen. 
Ep. 7. 2. Suet. Tib. 7. Dion. Cas. 60. 13. Tertul. Apol. 38. 
Aristot. Polit. 2. 9. Herod. 2. 46. Euseb. Prep. Evang. 2. 6. 
Kennet, Rom. Antiq. 64. Potter, Gr. Antiq. lib. 8, p. 581. 


Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 4. Sen. Ep. 95. Plato, lib. 1 de leg. 
Arnob. Adv. Gen. 4-7. Aug. De Civ. Dei. 7. 2. 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 9 


ther on. At present we are merely considering that 
Christianity was the most striking and startling and 
fundamental change in the history of mankind. It 
was a revolution greater and more radical than any 
that ever occurred in history. What accounts for 
it ? 

Before coming to the explanation, we shall con- 
sider some other facts which attest that the religion 
of Christ was the most stupendous innovation known 
to mankind. 

Paganism was not always and everywhere so bad 
or debased. Early Rome presents many instances 
of virtue. But paganism at the time of Christ, 
though at its highest as regards civilization, judged 
by worldly standards, was at its lowest as regards 
morality. That looks like a contradiction. To us 
it seems that civilization and morality should go 
hand in hand. That is because our idea of civiliza- 
tion is Christian. 

But pagan civilization was different. It looked 
merely to material or esthetic standards. In the 
time of Christ pagan culture, as regards literature, 
sculpture, architecture and government both civil and 
military, had reached its highest development. But 
in spite of this high degree of civilization, the morals 
of the people were indescribably low. The reason 
of it was that paganism flattered man and gratified 
his passions. ‘That is why it took root and spread 
everywhere so easily. It never aimed at the chas- 


10 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


tening of the spirit. It never tried to curb the evil 
inclinations of man’s heart. 

True, there were some noble exceptions, men of 
lofty mind and exalted views. These tried to stem 
the tide of immorality but failed to get a following, 
except a handful and for a time. Besides, they 
themselves, while inculcating virtue, very frequently 
practised their own pet vices, which were by no 
means small. 

The very fact that some exceptional men endeav- 
ored to improve matters shows how bad things were. 
But no improvement was effected. On the contrary, 
vice became more flagrant, more degenerate, more 
widespread. At the beginning of the Christian era, 
it was a Niagara of iniquity. What could stop it? 
Nothing human. Human nature, left to itself, had 
shown what it was capable of. Regeneration was 
impossible unless from above. 

Yielding to human passion had brought mankind 
into a condition of animalism. Rather, worse than 
animalism, for the animal does not go to excess. 
Instinct guides and checks. But man, although he 
had reason to guide and check him, turned traitor 
to reason when it sought to rule his passions. Pas- 
sion ruled reason. The natural order was upset. 
Man, a spiritual and reasonable being, suffered him- 
self to become carnal. Lust guided him rather than 
the light of conscience. 

It was the outcome of debased idolatry. Genera- 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 11 


tions of self-indulgence, living only for self, for pleas- 
ure, for every gratification within reach, had made 
man a god unto himself,—a law unto himself. 
Nothing stood between him and his selfish pursuits 
except force. 

As St. Ignatius says in his wonderful book of the 
Spiritual Exercises, the whole world was given over 
to the worship of self in one form or another. Self 
was the great idol, and that was the attraction of 
idolatry. Man read his own self, his passions, his 
pursuits, his very crimes, into his self-made deities 
and fabricated his idols and their rites accordingly.® 

In order that you may realize what a debasing 
hold idolatry had on the people, and what an obstacle 
it was to Christianity, I give the following data from 
authentic writers of antiquity: 

Varro exclaims, “ They eall those gods, which if 
they had life would pass for monsters; yet they and 
their abominable practices are worshipped by law, 
and by rites which reproduce their abominations.” * 

Even Cicero bears witness to the baseness of idola- 
try. “‘ Homer ascribed human actions and qualities 
to the gods; I had rather he had raised men to the 
imitation of the divine.’ * Augustine tells us that 
the highest gods were the most debased and their 
worship the most obscene.? From Arnobius we learn 


6 Sen. Oct. 379. Suet. Tib. 69. Tac. Ann. 3. 18. 
7 Apud, Civit. Dei, 6. 10. 

8 Tuse. 1. 26. 

9 De Civit. 7, 2. 


12 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


that public plays performed as sacred rites in the 
worship of the gods, presented every conceivable 
obscenity and vicious excess.1° These vile gods were 
worshipped by human sacrifice even in Greece and 
Rome.1? At Sparta boys were whipped to death on 
the altar of Diana.1? Everywhere lust and drunk- 
enness were part of the obligatory worship of Bacchus 
and Venus. 

Lactantius writes: ‘‘It is easy to see that the 
worshippers of false gods could not but be debased. 
For how could they be expected to be kept from 
shedding human blood, who worshipped gods that 
shed blood, as did Mars and Bellona? How could 
they spare even their own parent who adored Jupiter, 
who drove away his own father? How could they 
be merciful to their own infant children, who ven- 
erated Saturn the devourer of his children, and Juno 
who hurled out of Olympus her malformed offspring ? 
How could rapine and fraud be avoided by men 
who knew the thefts committed by their god, Mer- 
cury? How could they restrain their passions who 
venerated Jove, Hercules, Bacchus and Apollo as 
gods, while their lusts and frightful lasciviousness 
of very blackest dye, were not only known to the 
learned, but brought out upon the stage of the thea- 
tres and made the choice material of songs that 


10 Adv. Gen. 7. 
11 Porphyr. Peri Ap. 2. Tac. Ann. 14. 3. 
12 Lucian, 2. 247. 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 18 


everyone might the more surely know them? Could 
men be good under such training? To appease the 
god you adore you must do the things you know to 
be pleasing and agreeable to him. The most devout 
worshippers are those who seek to imitate their god. 
Thus truly did the worship of the gods destroy the 
morals of the heathen people.” 7° 

Modern historians thus comment on idolatry: 
“ Some gods had animals offered to them, others had 
men sacrificed to them. The rites were for the most 
part senseless and ridiculous and commonly filthy, 
obscene and cruel. The festivals and solemnities 
were soiled with the most unclean profligacies and 
the greatest iniquities. It was allowable to practise 
these things even in the dwelling-places of the false 
gods. Vicious and most impious were the lives of 
the upper, middle and lower classes, and they com- 
mitted with impunity crimes and horrors that decent 
ears cannot now bear to hear named.** 

Grotius speaks as follows: ‘ Almost everywhere 
on earth the pagan rites were full of cruelty, human 
blood was shed to appease the gods, nor did Roman 
laws prevent this. The most sacred solemnities of 
Ceres and Bacchus were filled with obscenity: 
Every day children were thrown out to die.” 1° 

And now Christianity appears to tell the pagan 
that he is fundamentally and radically wrong. It 


13 De Justitia, 5. 10. 15 De ver. relig. 2. 11, 12. 
14 Mosheim, 1, 11. 


14 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


dares to inform him that in his idol worship he is 
serving not God but Satan. Was there ever such a 
reform in the world as that? Was mankind ever 
so diametrically opposed in all that was congenial ? 
What chance, humanly considered, had such a re- 
form? LBeforehand, any jury of reasonable men 
would have brought in a verdict of impossibility. 
But that very impossibility was accomplished. 

Another feature of paganism was its treatment 
of women. From a human standpoint, this is its 
saddest aspect. Woman was merely a thing, a toy, 
an instrument for man’s pleasure. Like a toy he 
could cast her aside whenever he chose. Woman, 
who has her youth and her beauty and her virginity 
for one lasting bestowal, saw how these were taken 
from her rudely, and that afterwards she was set 
aside, or thrown out, to make way for another who 
was younger and more beautiful.?® 

This was another phase of self-worship. Man, the 
stronger, gratified his lust, although it plunged the 
woman into despair and degradation. A woman in 
her youth gives herself to the man she loves. And 
when she has confided her youth and her beauty to 
him, she hopes also that he will have in keeping her 
old age and her fading charms. 

The brutality of man towards woman in paganism 
brutalized woman also. But not having his strength 


16 Hor. Od. 3. 16. Suet. Oct. 34. Ov. Nux. 15. Tac. Ann. 
13. 52. ~Plin. H. N. 14. 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 15 


and his advantages, she could not assert herself as he 
did. 

Women were slaves of man’s lust. Tossed aside 
at his will, they became mere servants or worse in 
his household. Perhaps they were thrown out. alto- 
gether. That was paganism’s attitude towards 
woman. Tf orgetting that he owed his hfe to woman, 
man treated her as a piece of furniture or as one 
of his cattle—— perhaps not as well as some of his 
cattle. 

The condition of woman was so bad that modesty 
forbids any but general mention of the matter. 
Standard writers refuse to employ the English lan- 
guage in describing the debasement of women in 
classic paganism. When they refer to the orgies and 
degradation of womankind they do soin Latin. That 
in itself is the worst possible indictment of the pagan 
treatment of women. 

Marriage was a jest, children an accident or ca- 
lamity. Hardly a Roman emperor in the classic 
era had a child as successor. That explains the wide- 
spread custom of adoption for inheritance and suc- 
cession among the higher classes. 

The most popular divinity was Venus, goddess of 
lust. Her shrines were everywhere, and always 
nearby her temples were her groves consecrated to 
lust. She was worshipped by the most obscene rites, 
thus giving the sanction of religion to the debasement 
of women. 


16 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


The result of this degradation of women was that 
the family died out. Slaves outnumbered the citi- 
zens three toone. Cruelty follows lust. The women 
attended the gladiatorial shows, and joined with the 
men in calling for blood, and in refusing all mercy 
to the suppliant. 

Cruelty followed towards woman herself. She was 
put to hard and degrading work, even into tread- 
mills ; there was hardly any sex distinction as regards 
labor. The mother or wife had no respect in the 
home or out of it. And it was all a legitimate effect 
of idolatry. The gods whom the people worshipped 
showed no respect for the goddesses. The lust and 
cruelty of Jupiter finally found expression in the 
license and hardheartedness of men toward women. 

Christianity stood before man and told him that 
woman was his equal! Was that not a startling 
declaration to those accustomed for generations to 
regard women as merely the objects of their lust? 
And now the new religion condemns all that! 

Woman must be your companion, it declared, she 
must be the object of your love, not of your lust. 
You must cherish and honor her as you do your very 
self. The woman who is your wife, she who gave 
you her heart, her youth and her beauty, she must 
be yours as long as life lasts.) When age and lost 
beauty make her less attractive, her love, fostered 
by your love for her, must make her dearer and 
dearer to you. She must be the respected mother 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 17 


of your children and the companion of your joys and 
SOrrows. 

Was there ever such a mandate laid on lustful 
man? We emphasize man throughout this consid- 
eration because man constituted pagan society. 
Woman did not count, for the most part. And it 
was for the conquest of man, pagan man, that Chris- 
tianity set out. Not that woman was not also its 
aim, but its great obstacle was man, with his lust, 
his greed, and his vices of all sorts. 

Another feature of paganism which Christianity 
had to confront was child murder. If for any rea- 
son a man did not care to be burdened with a child, 
he could throw it out of doors to die, or, if he pre- 
ferred, he could strangle it.17 He never consulted 
the mother’s instinctive affection for her offspring 
or the rights of the child, but only his own wishes. 
Jt was self-worship over again, living only for self, 
idolatry.18 

The life of an infant was not protected by any 
law or by public opinion of any nature.!® Minitius 
Felix writes, “J see you expose your children to 
beasts and birds of prey or even wretchedly choke to 
death your own offspring.” 7° 

To those who, to spare themselves the sight of 


17 Aristotle, Politics, 7. 16. 

18 Plin. Ep. 4. 15. Tac. Hist. 5.5. Juv. Sat. 6. 592. Ovid 
Amor. 2, 14. Suet. Oct. 65. 

19 Tac. 5. 5. 

20 Min. Felix, 30. 


18 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


killing their own children, cast them out instead to 
die unseen, Lactantius says: “Is it not as cruel 
an act of murder to cast the fruit of your wombs 
out into places where dogs may devour them? No, 
— you will say, someone may take pity on the out- 
casts and keep and feed them. And what then? 
You have consigned your own flesh and blood either 
to slavery or prostitttion.” 1 

If in Rome, the mistress of civilization, children 
were thus murdered or consigned to slavery or pros- 
titution, need we wonder that elsewhere they were 
offered as victims to Baal, Melcarth, Adramalech 
and many other idols like the frightful Moloch, who 
had a man’s body and a bull’s head ? 

In honor of Venus, worshipped together with Baal, 
children were tied up in sacks and flung from the 
pinacles of the temples.?? 

In Bosra, boys were slaughtered before a square 
black idol and their remains put under the idol.?# 

In Athens boys were forced to flay themselves be- 
fore the goddess Artemis until their blood covered 
her idol. 

These sacrifices inspired no horror. Cruelty and 
impurity go together. In the largest and most flour- 
ishing cities and among the better classes there was 
no protest against these savage practices. 

Lactantius informs us that: When 200 children 


21 Lact. Justit. 1. 12. 23 Kvag. H. E. lib. 22. 
22 Dollinger, Heid. & Jud. 6. 4. 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 19 


of the noblest families of Carthage were actually 
immolated to Moloch or Saturn, 300 more, not then 
wanted, were presented for the same purpose by 
their parents. | ! ! 4 

So long as paganism had its temples, the little 
ones had no protection against burning, exposure or 
infamy. Children were mostly the victims because 
they had no power of resistance. It was Satan wor- 
ship, “ Satan was a murderer from the beginning.” 2° 

fs it any wonder that Christ began the regenera- 
tion of the world by becoming an infant — and by 
honoring a virgin with the dignity of divine ma- 
ternity! “ Among pagans,” says Justin, “ children 
of both sexes and all ages were made acquainted with 
the demoralizing rites and worship of the pagan 
temples and festivals. Millions of unhappy boys 
and girls, the children of the poor, of the vicious, and 
the unfortunate, saw reason first dawn for them amid 
the gloom of those infamous receptacles, where the 
hand of a mercenary was wont to gather up the 
numerous bands of exposed children, and the bought- 
up children of the poor, along with the young cap- 
tives taken, and there prepare them for the slave 
market or still more dreadful places.” 2 

This dreadful crime was not merely tolerated but 
ordained by law and sanctioned by the greatest sages 
of paganism. 

24 Div. Inst. 21. 26 Just. Apolog. 1. 

25 Jn. 8. 44. 


20 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY. 


Plato distinctly advocated a law to compel women 
beyond the prime of life to prevent childbirth. He 
also ordained that children who were born weak 
should be cast out to die of starvation.** Aristotle 
advocated a law to the same effect.*® ‘These repre- 
sented the loftiest minds of antiquity. What they 
would enforce by law the people generally carried 
out of their own accord, strangling or exposing in- 
fants to suit their whims or convenience. 

Seneca states that it was usual among the Romans 
to destroy weak and deformed children.*° 

Man looked upon it as his right to do what he 
wished with woman and with his offspring. Chris- 
tianity challenged that right. It branded that right 
as it would murder. How startling that proclama- 
tion must have seemed to the hearers of the Gospel! 
What chance had any such doctrine to get a follow- 
ing among such men? Humanly speaking, none. 

But the new religion went further. It put even 
greater restrictions on the ways of man. 

Slavery among the pagans was a deeply rooted and 
widespread institution. Man looked upon slaves as 
chattels. They were something to be bought and 
sold or exchanged or destroyed at will.°° Our idea 
of slavery is often confined to the notion that slaves 


27 Plato, Repub. 5. 461. 

28 Polit. 7. 15. 

29 De Ira, 1. 13. 

80 Plin. H. N. 33. 11-9. 23. Tac. 14. 42. Sen. Ep. 47. Juv. 
6. 219. 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 21 


were inferior to their masters, as were the African 
slaves. But that is not the idea of slaves as existing 
in paganism. Very often the slave was superior to 
his master. 

In the days of the Empire, very frequently the 
slaves of Rome were the pronounced intellectual su- 
periors of their masters. Slaves as known in modern 
times consist mainly of the victims of powerful raid- 
ers on a less defensible people, usually the unfortu- 
nate negroes. But slaves among the ancients were 
prisoners of war. Often they were in every respect 
the equals or superiors of their captors, but the chance 
of war made them prisoners. 

Prisoners so taken were frequently either butchered 
or led into captivity and made slaves. The soldiers 
of a victorious army disposed of their prisoners as 
they would of other booty. They either killed them 
or kept them as slaves or sold them to the highest 
-bidder. The master had the power of life or death 
over these unfortunates.?? 

Some of the more powerful Roman families had 
hundreds of slaves. At times, either for punish- 
ment or for the purpose of intimidation, hundreds 
were slain at once. Nor was this the attitude of the 
brutalized Roman only. Cato, the philosopher and 
teacher, advises the master to get rid of old furni- 
ture and old slaves, sickly slaves and sickly cattle. 

There was a Roman legend which decreed that, 


31 Justinian, Institutes, 1. 3. 3. 


22 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


bread being scarce at Rome, all the old men over 
sixty were drowned in the Tiber. In regard to this 
legend Niebuhr says, “an act of cruelty which so 
far from being unheard of among the pagans, is said 
to have been ordained by law in Ceos, and was ex- 
tolled even beyond.” 3? 

Passing over other nations, which may be consid- 
ered not so civilized, we shall confine ourselves to 
Rome and Greece. Plutarch in his life of Cato, the 
Censor, informs us that he used his slaves like so 
many beasts of burden and turned them off or sold 
them when they had grown old in his service! And 
Cato was the Censor of morals! 

Suetonius states that slaves were put along with 
eattle in the treadmills used for raising water from 
the river.*3 

And who were the slaves? There were three 
classes: 1. War prisoners, often more cultured than 
their captors. 2. Homeless children, of Roman par- 
ents, thrown out to die and picked up by slave deal- 
ers. 3. Roman citizens who by poverty or debt sold 
themselves to the wealthy. 

From these slaves, for the most part, the gladia- 
tors were chosen to fight to death for the amusement 
of the crowd. Also to fight with wild beasts. In 
these contests with beasts, the crowd, says Seneca, 
“became enemies of the human combatants and de- 


82 Rom. 2. 27. 
33 Vit. Calig. 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 238 


sired nothing so much as to see them quickly slaugh- 
tered.” ** 

Lactantius informs us that should one of each pair 
of gladiators not fall quickly the whole assembly flies 
into a rage against them and fresh couples must be 
brought out to despatch one another more speed- 
ily.2° 

Tertullian states that when the bloody spectacle 
was over, and the Roman knight, still longing for 
blood, returned to his palace, he supped on the flesh 
of bears and wild boars that had been fattened on 
human flesh and blood.3® It was blood, blood and 
always the blood of slaves! 

Lactantius declares that the gladiator when struck 
down cried in vain for mercy. The spectators voted 
for and demanded death, so completely had human- 
ity became estranged from the human heart.*” 

This was among the polite nations of paganism. 
We may imagine what it was elsewhere. Two-thirds 
of the pagan world were slaves! 

Against all this the voice of Christianity rang out: 
The slave is your brother, he has rights even as you 
have, his life is as sacred as yours, if he owes you 
service he does not owe you himself. 

To the domineering and dominating Roman, what 
a startling statement! His very slaves not his to do 
with as he wills? Why is he master if he may not 


84 De Ira, 1. 2. 36 Apol. 9. 
35 Inst. lib. 6. 87 Inst. lib. 6. 


94 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


cut or kill or use as he likes? Did a reform ever 
face a bigger task? The religion of Jesus Christ 
stood up against this tide of human depravity. 

Not only against the ill usage of slaves did it ery 
out, but also against the treatment of prisoners of 
war. Woe to the conquered! was the battle cry of 
paganism. And woe it was.°8 The conquered were 
frequently huddled together, men, women, children. 
Tf the victors had no need of prisoners, they could 
butcher on the spot every captive. If they chose to 
take captives for slavery, they picked out from among 
the men the clever and the strong, and from the 
women the young and beautiful. The rest, old men 
and women, the weak, the deformed, children and 
babes, might be put to the sword. 

Against that barbarity, and it existed in the high- 
est pagan civilization, Christianity cried out even 
to the proud military conquerors of the world: 
“ Hold! you do wrong, such slaying is not war but 
murder, you must not kill!” Startling indeed, such 
an injunction to those Lords of the World. It was 
nevertheless the message of Christianity to the Rul- 
ers of paganism. 

But Christianity went even further. It told the 
man on the throne that he was living in the presence 
of the Invisible Ruler of the world, and that whether 
or not he could deceive or impose upon his fellow 
man, he could never deceive or impose upon the Lord 


388 Sen. Oct. 379. Lucan. Phars. 1. 70. Tac. Ann. 42. 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 25 


of the universe. And so it commanded virtue always 
and everywhere, and inculeated a personal responsi- 
bility for every action of life. What a law to those 
who were always a law to themselves! What a spir- 
itual message to those who recognized only material 
things. 

Furthermore, it declared that this Lord of the 
universe was a lowly Jew, a member of a despised 
and subject nation, who was crucified by order of a 
Roman Governor! 

Lest the awful picture of paganism that has been 
given may seem to some to be over drawn, I here 
give the description of conditions as portrayed by St. 
Paul. We must remember that as a Christian and 
an Apostle his words are measured. Modesty for- 
bade him to do more than merely touch on the dread- 
ful evils of the heathen world. 

Yet, reserved as it is, what an awful arraignment 
it is of pagan morality! 

In the Epistle to the Romans he thus refers to the 
prevalent and open vices of the most civilized people 
of that era: 


And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God, 
into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and 
of birds and of four-footed beasts and of creeping things. 

Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their 
heart, unto uncleanness: to dishonor their own bodies 
among themselves. 

Who changed the truth of God into a lie: and wor- 


26 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


shipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, 
who is blessed forever. Amen. 

For this cause God delivered them up to shameful 
affections. For their women have changed the natural 
use, into that use which is against nature. 

And in like manner the men also, leaving the natural 
use of woman, have burned in their lusts one towards 
another, men with men working that which is filthy, and 
receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to 
their error. 

And as they liked not to have God in their knowledge; 
God delivered them up to a reprobate sense: to do those 
things which are not convenient. 

Being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, 
avarice, wickedness; full of envy, murder, contention, 
deceit, malignity; whisperers. 

Detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, 
haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents. 

Foolish, dissolute, without affection, without fidelity, 
without mercy. 

Who, having known the justice of God, did not under- 
stand that they, who do such things, are worthy of death: 
and not only they that do them, but they also that consent 
to them that do them.%® 


Contrast this condition of morals with the Sermon 
on the Mount, and you will realize that in very truth 
Christianity was the most startling reform ever in- 
troduced into the world. 


And Jesus seeing the multitudes, went up into a 
mountain. 
And opening his mouth He taught them, saying: 


89 Rom. 23-32. 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 27 


Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom 
of heaven. 

Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land. 

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be com- 
forted. 

Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: 
for they shall have their fill. 

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 

Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God. 

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the 
children of God. 

Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice sake: 
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute 
you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for 
my sake. 

Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in 
heaven; for so they persecuted the prophets that were 
before you. 

You have heard that it hath been said, ‘Thou shalt 
love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy.” 

But I say to you, “ Love your enemies, do good to them 
that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and 
caluminate you: 

That you may be the children of your Father who is in 
heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and 
bad. and raineth upon the just and the unjust. 

For if you love them that love you, what reward shall 
you have? do not even the publicans this? 

And if you salute your brethren only, what do you 
more? do not also the heathens this? 

Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father 
is perfect.” *° 


40 Matt. 6. 


298 OREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


That is the foundational teaching of the religion 
which set out to dispute the world with the votaries 
of pride, cruelty and lust. Truly it was the most 
startling innovation in the record of mankind. 

That was how Christianity stood before the pagan 
world, seeking to make it her own. What chance 
had it? That the austere religion of Jesus Christ 
should supplant the congenial worship of paganism 
was a greater undertaking than anything recorded 
in human annals. It was such a stupendous project 
that even with every human aid it would be pro- 
nounced beforehand an impossibility. 

Yet that undertaking was accomplished, and with- 
out human aids such as men rely on ordinarily. 
How wasit done? This is not an academic question. 
It is a reality. It is a fact in the history of man- 
kind. The pagan Roman Empire became Christian. 
The world dates its years now from the Founder of 
Christianity. 

The fact is so well authenticated and so wonder- 
ful that it is one of the greatest wonders of the 
world. It is a miracle, something beyond the range 
of natural causes to effect or account for. Are you 
looking for a miracle in the modern world? Here 
it is;— Christianity itself, its foundation, its spread, 
its existence to this day. Into the material world 
of paganism it introduced the spiritual element that 
transformed mankind. 

To do that, Christianity must have presented the 


MOST STARTLING INNOVATION 29 


soundest credentials. Men were not gullible then to 
a greater extent than they are now. What induced 
them to change their whole outlook on life and their 
entire manner of living? Unless Christianity pre- 
sented the very best credentials, it never could have 
effected its establishment. 

We shall next proceed to the consideration of these 
credentials. But before doing so, we may remark 
again that such a startling innovation in the pagan 
world as Christianity, required the soundest creden- 
tials conceivable. To bring the haughty Roman to 
bow down before the Crucified and to accept the aus- 
tere morality of the Cross required the strongest 
evidence in support of the religion of Jesus Christ. 

And when we add that this change was effected 
without offering any human inducement sufficient to 
bring it about, we may readily realize that in the 
establishment of Christianity the hand of God was 
clearly manifested. Not only were there no worldly 
inducements offered for the acceptance of the new 
doctrine, but there was every human inducement 
against it. And yet it was accepted. 

We know how hard it is to introduce an ordi- 
nary reform into a city, state or nation. But Chris- 
tianity was the most extraordinary reform ever pro- 
posed. It was to reverse the world. It was to de 
prive a large body of pagan priests of their office and 
emolument. It was to curb the monarch on his 
throne and the citizen in his home. It was to per- 


30 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


vade and alter society from its foundations up. It 
was to change the whole conception of life of a whole 
empire which embraced the whole civilized world. 
Can you conceive of a more startling innovation than 
that ¢ 

Sages and rulers had frequently endeavored to 
reform a handful of people in some ordinary mat- 
ters, but had failed» And now, not sages or rulers, 
but a poor despised band of Hebrews go forth to 
reform, not their own people, but the nations of the 
earth. Was there ever a more startling project? 

In order to understand the force and significance 
of the argument based on the establishment of Chris- 
tianity, we must realize the hopelessness of the un- 
dertaking, humanly considered. It is only when 
we perceive that it was altogether the most gigantic 
achievement among mankind that we can appreciate 
the nature of the credentials which it must have pre- 
sented in order to win over to it the allegiance of a 
hostile world. 

We have shown that there were arrayed against the 
Christian ideal all the forces of government, national 
custom, religion, human passions and materialistic 
conceptions. No such array of opposing forces ever 
confronted an undertaking. Christianity set out not 
only to oppose that combination, but to win it over 
and make it its champion. 

A startling proposition surely! And what is more 
startling, it was accomplished. 


CHAPTER IT 


CHRISTIANITY ’S NEED OF THE SOUNDEST 
CREDENTIALS: 


HRISTIANITY came out of Judea. Its 
Founder was a person condemned as a crim- 
inal by a Roman tribunal. Its first preach- 

ers were despised Jews, of little education and cul- 
ture, for the most part. Its doctrine put a restraint 
on human liberty and human passion. It opposed a 
worship which was part of the life of the people 
and the state. It offered no worldly advantages to 
those to whom it addressed itself. On the contrary, 
it declared that its acceptance meant, most likely, 
persecution, imprisonment, even death. As it pro- 
gressed, its followers were imprisoned, exiled, tor- 
tured, killed. 

How did austere Christianity persuade a sensual 
and degraded world to accept it? How did the spir- 
itual religion of Jesus Christ take root in the ma- 
terial world? Why did men embrace a religion 
whose acceptance frequently implied chains, exile 
and death? How do you explain it? 


Augustine, one of the greatest minds this world 
31 


32 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


has known, asked that question in his time, some 
sixteen hundred years ago. He was a pagan. He 
had the viewpoint of paganism. But the spectacle 
of Christianity arrested his attention. How could 
this Thing get a foothold in the world? 

At length he exclaimed: “Christianity is a 
miracle!” He reasoned that for the establishment 
of such a religion divine power was required. There 
could be no human explanation for it. Either 
miracles were wrought to found this religion, or a 
greater miracle presented itself, the establishment 
of such a religion without miracles. 

And thus it was that one of the greatest sages of 
the world was led into the examination of the ere- 
dentials of Christianity. His examination led him 
to be a Christian. His conversion, and the conse- 
quent effect on him, led him to be a champion of 
Christianity. 

Now if a man like Augustine, who was so much 
closer to the source of Christianity than we are, and 
so much mightier of intellect than most of us, if a 
man of his keen and sceptical mind, filled moreover 
with the prejudices of paganism, if he found that 
the credentials of Christianity were sound, the sound- 
est conceivable, we may surely feel that they have 
not lost any of their force by the confirmation of 
so many centuries, Rather, they have gained 
strength by the continued existence and spread of 
Christianity. 


NEED OF SOUNDEST CREDENTIALS — 33 


Now what are the credentials of Christianity ? 
What induced pagan mankind to renounce paganism 
and embrace the religion of Jesus Christ ? 

By credentials we mean the evidence which makes 
us put credit in a thing; the proofs which attest the 
truth of a thing. Whatever those credentials were, 
they must indeed have been very clear and strong 
to bring about such a change as that from paganism 
to Christianity. 

You know how you require evidence for the sound- 
ness of a business proposition if you are to risk your 
capital in it. If you are a man of ordinary busi- 
ness insight, you will not risk a considerable sum of 
money on an enterprise without receiving good as- 
surances that the project is as represented. You use 
every precaution to safeguard your investment. And 
rightly so. 

But if instead of your money you were to put your 
entire business and fortune into a venture, how very 
slow and careful you would be. But going further, 
suppose you were embarking on a venture not only 
your possessions, but your very life and all you held 
dear! Then you would require the soundest cre- 
dentials. 

Now when Christianity confronted paganism it 
demanded of it a complete surrender. Paganism 
was not an abstract doctrine,—it was a concrete 
creed. It permeated the nation, the family, the in- 
dividual. Government was built on it, society was 


34 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


formed by it, and the individual regulated his life 
by it. 

Paganism was a tremendous fact. It was a world 
power. It dominated everything. Besides, it was 
agreeable, exceedingly so. It pleased everybody. It 
imposed no unpleasant duties. Rather, it put a 
premium on one’s own pleasures and made a virtue 
out of the indulgence of one’s vices. This was the 
pagan Goliath that confronted the Christian David. 

There was some proportion between the shepherd 
boy and his huge opponent. Skill was pitted against 
size. But there was no proportion between the con- 
tenders when Christianity confronted paganism. Pa- 
ganism had power, wealth, learning, prestige, posi- 
tion and possession on its side. Christianity had 
nothing, humanly speakly. Yet it demanded the 
complete surrender of paganism! Can you conceive 
of a more startling proposition ¢ 

If Christianity had nothing to offer, humanly 
speaking, what then must have been her credentials 
to induce such a colossus to give way before her, or 
rather to join her? It is clear as day that unless 
the religion of Christ presented to the pagan world 
the soundest credentials for her mission, she never 
could have converted the Roman Empire. She never 
could have taken captive such world forces and trans- 
formed them into her own devoted adherents. 

That is what she did. And she did it although the 
transformation meant that the pagan surrendered 


NEED OF SOUNDEST CREDENTIALS 35 


what was dearest to his heart. And this he did, 
moreover, in order to submit himself to what hu- 
man nature recoiled from,— ostracism, persecution, 
prison, death. Christianity’s credentials must have 
been wonderful to effect such a change. For no 
cause ever demanded so much from mankind as 
Christianity did. 

Human nature is fundamentally the same always. 
The pagans had, even more than ourselves, the love 
of pleasure and liberty. They were as strongly at- 
tached to the worship and ways of their forefathers 
as we are. Nevertheless they subordinated their 
pleasure and their liberty to the teaching of Christ, 
and they gave up their ancestral religion and cus- 
toms for an innovation from a strange and despised 
land. There is nothing comparable to that in the 
history of mankind. 

To bring it about some marvelous cause must be 
assigned. And since no human power was adequate, 
it remains that there must have been a divine cause 
at work. And this is the very point of the entire 
matter. Turn and twist as you like, you cannot 
evade the issue that to get a foothold at all in the 
world Christianity had to show divine. Her cre- 
dentials had to be divine since there were none that 
were human. 

She had neither power nor prestige. She had no 
earthly rewards to offer and no worldly gains to pro- 
pose. Yet’she established herself in an element that 


36 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


was opposed to her by all the forces of the world. 
What is the answer? She presented convincing tes- 
timony for her claims. Unless she did, the men of 
the day never would have accepted her. 

In the beginning every inch of her progress was 
contested. But, proving her claims as she advanced, 
she enrolled such an army of adherents that they in 
turn became one of her best credentials. But to win 
over that army of followers one by one, was the re- 
sult of the convincing proofs which she offered for 
her mission. Her credentials were so convincing 
that they left serious men little or no choice. That 
is why she drew to her standard millions and mil- 
lions, although in becoming hers they had frequently 
to face exile, imprisonment and death. 

We keep coming back to this point because it 1s 
paramount. Once realize the task Christianity set 
herself, and you become convinced that her estab- 
lishment proves her divinity. 

Men do not assume hard duties and grave respon- 
sibilities for slight reasons. But converts from pa- 
ganism assumed more than hard duties and grave 
responsibilities. They were regarded as enemies of 
the state and of the gods. They were despoiled of 
their possessions, cast out from the society of those 
they loved, and frequently maimed and tortured, just 
because they were Christians. 

Some were burned alive, some thrown to the beasts 
in the arena, some beheaded, some tied in sacks with 


Ee eee ae 


* 


NEED OF SOUNDEST CREDENTIALS 37 


serpents and drowned in the sea. Others were made 
lame and forced to work in the mines, or put aboard 
rotten vessels and sent out into the deep to a watery 
grave. In a thousand ways and by thousands they 
were scourged, maimed and butchered. Yet their 
ranks were constantly filled up. 

What was the attraction? Certainly nothing hu- 
man. It was therefore divine. There can be no 
possible question about it. For they who thus gave 
up everything and incurred suffering, privation and 
death were not only women and children, not only 
slaves and the aged. They were scholars and mer- 
chants and soldiers and legislators. 

The greatest scholars and sages adorn the ranks 
of early Christianity. Besides, no braver men ever 
lived than those who during the first three hundred 
years of Christianity made up her adherents. 
Driven by persecution, they worshipped in cave and 
catacomb. ‘Threatened with dire punishment, they 
stood firm and professed their faith before judges 
and emperors. It is estimated that from nine to 
eleven millions of men and women were martyred 
for the faith in the first three centuries. 

Could any undertaking not divine survive that as- 
sault? If we want to be reasonable at all, how can 
we behold such an effect without admitting a divine 
cause ? 

it is very easy for some scientists, and philoso- 
phers so-called, and infidels to put forth their various 


388 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


and changeable theories against the credibility of 
Christianity. But here is a fact. Christianity was 
established. And its establishment was beyond any 
human power to effect. A divine power therefore 
explains its establishment. Now a divine power can- 
not operate in favor of error, therefore Christianity 
is true. 

If the religion of Christ offered great worldly in- 
ducements we might understand its success. But it 
offered none whatever. On the contrary, every 
worldly consideration advised against it. This fact 
has been the greatest stumbling-block to the op- 
ponents of Christianity. 

The infidel Gibbon wrote his prodigious work on 
the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in order 
to offset the force of this fact. And what did he 
accomplish? Every chapter only serves to bring 
out the Christian argument stronger. A. man of 
analytic mind cannot read Gibbon, and others of 
his kind, without thereby getting stronger evidence 
for Christianity. Balmes shows this truly in his 
“History of European Civilization.” Only superfi- 
cial readers and those unacquainted with real history 
and human nature can be misled by Gibbon and men 
of his type. | 

Others, like Voltaire, have tried ridicule. But all 
the scorn and ridicule of the centuries cannot offset 
that tremendous fact of history, the establishment of 
Christianity. Against fire and sword gentle Chris- 


——S_ se ie ——— a 


NEED OF SOUNDEST CREDENTIALS © 39 


tianity pushed on and on until it conquered Rome 
and sat enthroned in the lofty place of the Cesars. 

For Christianity to do that it was necessary, from 
all we know of human nature, to have the right kind 
of credentials. Credentials they must have been 
which bore the closest scrutiny from every quarter 
for years and years, and from the keenest minds the 
world has known. What were those credentials ? 

Before specifying them, we shall remark that neces- 
sarily they were divine. Christianity had to show 
divine. She had no human credentials; just the re- 
verse,— every human consideration was against her. 
She came from a despised and hated quarter, she was 
announced by poor and insignificant advocates for 
the most part, she preached a crucified Jew as her 
Founder, she inculcated the necessity of restraint, 
penance and mortification, she told plainly that per- 
secution and death might be the fate of her follow- 
ers. 

What then had she to present in order to gain her 
millions of adherents? Is it not clear what the great 
Augustine said: either Christianity proved her 
claims by miracles, or she is herself a greater miracle 
than any she claims? That is logic for a thinker. 
That is an argument for those would-be philosophers 
who claim to follow reason as their guide and god! 
Yes, they follow it when it leads them to what they 
want. 

Two main reasons may be assigned for the rejec- 


40 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


tion of the credentials of Christianity, ignorance of 
them or a dislike for them. Ignorance excuses those 
who are not capable of knowing. Dislike for ereden- 
tials excusesno man. If a tax collector comes to your 
door to collect a part of your income for the govern- 
ment, you may dislike him and his credentials, but 
you pay your taxes if he shows he is authorized to 
collect them. Why? You are obliged to. The gov- 
ernment compels you. 

But that is the difference. God does not compel 
us,— in this life. He leaves us free because He 
made usso. But He presents evidence for His cause 
that is sufficient to give us certainty about it. He 
does not present evidence that will compel our accept- 
ance, for to do so would be to force us, and that He 
will not do. He made us free agents and will judge 
us by the manner in which we have used our free- 
dom. 

He could give us compelling evidence if He chose, 
but then there would be no choice on our part, no 
possibility of an act of faith. There is no choice 
in chemistry or mathematics. There, evidence is 
compulsory. ‘There is no merit in believing that 
two and two make four. 

So the credentials of Christianity are sufficient to 
produce reasonable certainty, but not physical cer- 
tainty. You are reasonably certain, for instance, 
that when you sit down to dinner at home your 
_ mother has not poisoned your food. You are rea- 


NEED OF SOUNDEST CREDENTIALS 41 


sonably certain of that, but you are not physically 
certain. A chemical analysis would be necessary to 
produce physical certainty. 

Mankind lives for the most part by reasonable cer- 
tainty. If we were to wait for absolute certainty, 
the world would be at a standstill. We should never 
board a train or boat before first getting a demonstra- 
tion that the engineer was capable and reliable. We 
should spend our lives investigating and never ac- 
complish anything. 

God made us reasonable beings, and He wants us 
to act on reasonable certainty. And we do in all the 
events of life. He wants us to do the same in regard 
to religion. And if we look into the credentials of 
Christianity, we shall find that they are certain with 
the same certainty, and greater, than we have for 
most of the things that concern us. ‘This will appear 
very clearly when we present these credentials. 

From the very nature of the case, we must look 
for most extraordinary credentials in regard to Chris- 
tianity. It was the greatest innovation in the world. 
No such transition has occurred before or since. We 
can understand a change from bad to worse. That 
takes care of itself. It is easy to go down hill. But 
Christianity was a change which revolutionized the 
individual and society. It obliged man to rise above 
himself and his weaknesses and his passions. It im- 
posed an absolutely different life on all who em- 
braced it, a life which, in the earlier centuries, im- 


42 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


plied everything that was strange to human nature. 

We who are now accustomed to Christian ways 
can form no idea of what the new life meant to the 
early Christians. It was a tremendous transforma- 
tion and a very great sacrifice. And this is what 
makes its establishment an argument so strong for 
Christianity. For people in large numbers and over 
a long period do not make great sacrifices without a 
sufficient motive. 

We are justified, therefore, scientifically and log- 
ically in stating that the credentials presented by 
Christianity were the truest, the strongest, the most 
unassailable, the most convincing possible. They 
had to stand the light of day for years and centuries. 
The people who gave up paganism for Christianity 
were taking the most serious step known to mankind. 

We can understand how an individual here or 
there might take such a serious step without due 
guarantees. But that millions who were hostile to 
the very idea of Christianity should not only cease 
their hostility to it but take up its standard and die 
for it, is incomprehensible unless the Christian ere- 
dentials were all that is claimed for them. There is 
no way out of it. 

I know I am repeating the argument with slight 
variations, but I do it to drive it home. I do it to 
show that unless a man is ignorant or prejudiced he 
must, if he wants to be logical, scientifie and reason- 
able, accept these credentials. 


= = a 


NEED OF SOUNDEST CREDENTIALS 438 


In themselves they are of their very nature so 
overpowering that it is hard to see how anybody not 
ignorant nor prejudiced can say he is in good faith 
and reject them. If a man is half honest with him- 
self, he cannot take a stand against those master 
minds of early Christianity who saw the credentials 
and weighed them and tried to find a flaw in them 
but could not. 

Tertullian, Origen, Justin, Ambrose and Augus- 
tine, and a host of others, whose superiors the world 
has not known, examined Christianity’s credentials 
and accepted them. They accepted them when to 
do so meant the greatest renunciation conceivable. 
They accepted them when to do so made them not 
only alter their views, but their lives. 

Now I do not mean to say that the Christian cre- 
dentials compel belief. That were to make Chris- 
tianity a proposition of geometry. Faith is not a 
matter of absolute evidence, but of sufficient evidence 
to the man of good will. This good will must be 
shown by giving these credentials at least the atten- 
tion bestowed on other serious matters of life. That 
is not asking too much when there is a question of 
a matter which concerns not only life, but eternal 
life. 

You give good inquiry to matters of money and 
business and society. The soul is more than all 
these. You give time and inquiry to politics and 
public questions. Christianity is the most important 


44. CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


subject ever introduced into the life of mankind. It 
is not a matter of the past. It is a living issue. It 
concerns you. 


Christ said He came for you, for you personally. | 


He said He established His religion for you, for you 
personally. He said He died on the Cross for you, 
for you personally. Did He or did He not? Does 
that not concern you? Is it not a bigger question 
than money or honor or power. When you stand 
before Him in judgment and plead as an excuse that 
you had time and inclination for everything and any- 
thing except the one thing necessary, what will He 
say ? 

I am speaking direct to you, O man, because God’s 
message was to you and you cannot be indifferent 
to it except at the risk of your eternal welfare. Do 
you want to risk that? Have you, to be candid, 
looked into this matter of the credentials of Chris- 
tianity half as seriously as you have investigated 
other things? Have you ever thought it worth while ? 

Millions of martyrs thought it worth while to die 
for what those credentials stand for. Hundreds of 
millions for hundreds of years have thought it worth 
while to live for and by the religion established by 
those credentials. And you? Can you afford to be 
indifferent ? 

We declare beforehand that the magnitude of the 
Christian claims demands the best credentials ever 
given for anything in this world. These credentials 


—— a 


NEED OF SOUNDEST CREDENTIALS 45 


will be placed before you. We are frank to admit 
the necessity of the soundest credentials. May we 
not ask of you also a frank consideration of them ? 
Christianity is truth. It courts scrutiny. The 
stronger the light thrown on it the clearer will appear 
its claims. But the light must be the white light of 
judicial inquiry, not the colored light of prejudice. 


CHAPTER III 
A JUDICIAL EXAMINATION OF THE CREDENTIALS 


HEN*a matter is vital and concerns our- 
selves, we are very poor judges in the 
case. The reason is because we are 

apt to see only what we want to see. 

A good physician will very rarely undertake the 
treatment of one of his own family in a critical ill- 
ness. His love and solicitude are a handicap. He 
will see things either too favorably or too unfavor- 
ably. It is so with a lawyer. The best legal minds 
realize the advantage of consultation with other law- 
yers in a case which concerns themselves. No mat- 
ter how capable the lawyer may be, if his own inter- 
ests are at stake he is apt to overlook what is most 
important and fail to see the strongest points of his 
opponent. 

To illustrate this. Two legal lights may be en- 
gaged in a personal lawsuit. Each may feel certain 
that the right is on his own side. And each will be 
convinced that the other side is wrong. Why? It 
may be that there are two sides to the matter, but 
usually it is because the two are intensely and differ- 


ently interested. In the course of the lawsuit the 
46 


ee a ee a eee ee 


A JUDICIAL EXAMINATION 47 


arguments and evidence of one side will not persuade 
the other. Neither side will weigh the statements 
and facts of the other side impartially. They will 
view each other’s evidence with a mind opposed to it. 

What is the result? The decision must rest with 
a judge. But even after a fair judicial hearing and 
decision, one party will commend the decision and 
the other will condemn it. But the judgment stands. 
The court will uphold the decision. Otherwise there 
would be no end to litigation. 

A man with a theory can see almost anything,— if 
it supports his theory. Also such a man will be 
blind to the most evident fact,— if it refutes his 
theory. The wish is father to the thought. We 
have all met people with whom it is useless to argue. 

Now, of all things on which men have set views, 
religion comes first. The reason is that religion 
means more than anything else toa man. Religion, 
unless it is merely nominal, goes right down into a 
man’s way of living. It is a vital matter. 

Consequently a man of fixed religious views is the 
hardest person in the world to persuade in regard 
to opposing views. He will not look at them fairly. 
Often he is hardly able to do so. Tradition, associa- 
tion, family ties, worldly interests, form a mist be- 
fore his mental vision which prevents him from see- 
ing aright. That is one reason why the credentials 
of Christianity must have been so sound and so won- 
derful to win over the hostile pagan mind. 


48 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


Those same credentials we are going to present 
to you. No matter what your attitude of mind may 
be, it is not half so antagonistic as was the pagan 
mind. ‘The evidence is even greater for you thar it 
was for the pagan, because you have the great test 
of all true things,— time. Nothing dissolves error 
so surely as time. But time has only confirmed the 
Christian credentials, as we shall show. 

Now I ask you to consider these evidences of Chris- 
tianity with a judicial mind. Do not start off by 
saying that the position of the other side is impos- 
sible. Try to be seated as a judge and weigh the 
evidence on its merits. That is not asking too much 
from a fair-minded man. 

If you do not wish to be classed as prejudiced, or 
ignorant, or indifferent, you certainly should be will- 
ing to give Christianity the same attention and fair- 


ness that you would give a matter of ordinary impor-’ 


tance. If you are not willing to do that, you cannot 
say you are in earnest about the greatest thing of 
life. The greatest thing it is, for millions have at- 
tested it by the greatest sacrifices known to mankind. 

Every institution and undertaking must have 
proper credentials to assure its success. These cre- 
dentials must be of a character which harmonizes 
with the thing in question. If it is a mining propo- 
sition, its promoters will go to the financial centres 
and endeavor to get capitalists interested. The cre- 
dentials will be evidences of the ore, its quality and 


~ 


A JUDICIAL EXAMINATION 49 


quantity, the titles to the claim, transportation facili- 
ties, and other such things associated with the min- 
ing industry. 

If the project, on the other hand, is the establish- 
ment of a newspaper in some new town, or of another 
paper in a town that already has one or several, the 
credentials for the enterprise will be of an altogether 
different character. In order to get financial back- 
ers, the promoters of this undertaking will have to 
show that there is a field for the class of readers they 
aim at acquiring. Also they must give evidence that 
they have or may get a staff of writers who can fur- 
nish the sort of news and views that will appeal to 
the class of readers they hope to reach. Besides this, 
they must also furnish evidence that there will be 
enough business support from the merchants of the 
place to guarantee the project’s success. 

The credentials in both these undertakings are, as 
you observe, of an entirely different character. The 
mining proposition must furnish material proofs of 
its claims,— the ore, the land, titles, the right of way, 
and such. ‘The publishing proposition must give as- 
surances just as convincing but of an altogether dif- 
ferent character in keeping with the nature of the 
undertaking. 

Christianity is a supernatural institution. It 
claims a divine origin and character. Its credentials 
must be in accordance with its nature. Unless it can 
give divine evidence, it has no right to get a hearing. 


50 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


Its foundation is supernatural. So must its creden- 
tials be. We must look therefore for miraculous con- 
firmation of its claims. That is as clear as day. 

The credentials of Christianity being of a super- 
natural or miraculous character, some people refuse 
to consider them at all, because they do not believe 
in miracles. Such an attitude is to pass judgment 
before weighing the evidence. It is not judicial, 
but prejudicial. It is not scientific. 

A hundred years ago who would have believed in 
telegraph, telephone, phonograph, wireless, submarine 
and airship? If a hundred years ago you had put 
these matters before a jury of rationalists or sci- 
entists, they would have said: Impossible! If a 
thousand years ago you declared that the world was 
round, you would have been put down as crazy. 
How could people on the under side hold on? And 
so of lots of things. 

Man, by discovering one of nature’s secrets, gives 
us a scientific miracle. Why may not God, who not 
only knows all nature’s secrets, but moreover created 
them, do something which to us seems impossible ? 
If nature is not subject to Him, is He nature’s God ? 
If creation does not obey Him, is He master of crea- 
tion ? 

If therefore God, the Creator and Master of the 
world, wishes the forces of the world to do His bid- 
ding, why should they not obey? As Ruler of the 
world must He fold His arms and acknowledge that 


A JUDICIAL EXAMINATION 51 


some of His creations are not subject to His will? 
Those who deny the possibility of miracles strip the 
Master of creation of His mastery. They limit the 
power of the Illimitable Cause of all things. 

You will say that such an attitude towards God is 
absurd. So it is) Why then do some men, in the 
name of science, take that stand? I may ask you 
why do some men, in the name of science, say we 
come from monkeys? It suits their theories. They 
set out to fight the Christian idea and welcome any- 
thing that helps them. Christianity declares we 
came from the hand of God, who breathed into us 
an immortal soul. They deny such an origin and 
assert that we came from monkeys. 

The transition from monkey to man was the culmi- 
nation of Darwin’s theory. Some scientists approved 
the arch without the keystone. Why? It suited 
their theories; it helped on their attack against Chris- 
tianity. Do you suppose those scientists would have 
accepted Darwin’s teaching if it stood by itself and 
was not an argument against revealed religion ? 
They would have laughed it out of existence. 

Yet, some years ago, if you did not believe in | 
Darwinism, you were put down as unprogressive and 
ignorant. Today, the leading scientists of the world 
reject Darwinism. It was swallowed whole by some 
intelligent people because it was the diet they wanted. 
And yet with all the prestige of science, it has gone 
forever, like so many other similar certainties. 


52 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


The credentials of Christianity did not give peo- 
ple what they wanted, yet they were so convincing 
that, on the strength of them, the world of that day 
accepted Christianity. And it did not have its day, 
as Darwinism and a hundred other isms. It is exist- 
ent today, and very much so, throughout the entire 
world. 

Now please approach the investigation of these 
credentials in a spirit worthy of yourself and of the 
great establishment they concern. All through the 
ages the master thinkers have declared that nothing 
in the history of the world arrests human attention 
as much as Christianity. Literature’s loftiest and 
most abundant efforts have been spent on this sub- 
ject. It is therefore worth your while. 

Most projects concern temporal and worldly in- 
terests. This goes beyond the confines of the world 
and reaches out into eternity. If you make a mis- 
take in other matters, you may repair it. If you 
reject Christianity, you take a stand which may affect 
you unalterably for time and eternity. 

In such a case, if you are in doubt at all, does not 
prudence dictate the safe side? Even if the ereden- 
tials were not as sound as they are, would they not 
command your respect on account of their infinite 
consequences? If your life were in danger and a 
means of saving it were at hand, would you reject 
it because you could conceive of the possibility of a 


A JUDICIAL EXAMINATION 53 


slightly better means? No, you would take what 
promised safety, if you loved your life. 

Christianity declares to us that we are immortal, 
that this life is only our first step, that our immor- 
tality depends on how we take that step, and that she 
is qualified to direct us how to take it. 

If you were making a journey over a mountain- 
pass and did not know the way to your destination, 
would you reject the directions of a guide because 
he pointed out a way that was difficult ¢ 

If you are not prepared to weigh the claims set 
forth by Christianity in a fair and judicial way, do 
not proceed at all. But if you are willing to inves- 
tigate the strongest credentials of any institution in 
the world, then I invite you to do so. But do not 
presume to throw the case, and such a case, out of 
court beforehand by setting yourself against the very 
thing which is in question. 

If you deny that it is possible for a man to be nine 
feet high, of course there is no use presenting you 
with evidence of his height. If you deny the possi- 
bility of the supernatural, there is no use giving you 
evidence of the supernatural. But that is not the 
scientifie way of going about things. Scientists and 
sages examine the evidence and decide that a thing is 
possible if they have evidence of its existence. 

Wireless was believed an impossibility some years 
ago. Evidence declares it possible. Evidence of 


54. CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


the miraculous is just as much entitled to acceptance. 
What Christianity asks is the same examination of 
her evidence that we give to other things. 

Tf we find that there are sure grounds for believ- 
ing the Gospel narrative, then we must believe it, 
even if it contains the miraculous. We must not 
go on the basis that because a thing is contrary to 
our views it cannot be so. The sane thing to do 
is to see if our views are right. Ifa fact goes against 
our views, the fact stands, our views fall. 

If it can be established by critical investigation 
that the Gospels are as true a record as any docu- 
ment of history, they are entitled to as good credit 
as any document of history. If we reject such a 
document, we must reject every document, and the 
whole past would be but a huge fiction. 

If there is as good evidence for the Gospels as 
there is for Cesar’s Commentaries, we should accept 
them. In point of fact, the Gospels have much bet- 
ter evidence in their behalf, as we shall see. If 
people went on the principle that no man could do 
what was attributed to Cesar and thus rejected his 
narrative, there would be no history. ‘The point to 
consider is not what we think he could do, but the 
evidence of what he did. ‘That evidence is abun- 
dant, independently of his own account. 

Beforehand a man might deny the possibility of 
Napoleon’s career. It reads like a romance. Yet 
the reality far surpassed the wildest romances of 


A JUDICIAL EXAMINATION 55 


literature. If it occurred two thousand years ago, 
we might say it was a huge fabrication. Yet no 
fabrication compares with the actual achievements 
of this colossus of modern days. Cesar and Napo- 
leon and Alexander are miracles of humanity. 

If God for His own reasons employed these hu- 
man agents, men of exceptional power in the intel- 
lectual world, why should He not employ exceptional 
agencies of the material world for the accomplish- 
ment of the most exceptional work in the annals of 
mankind? That is what we should expect. If God 
was to establish a new supernatural relation between 
earth and heaven, we should expect a supernatural 
manifestation of such a purpose. 

So far then from regarding the miraculous as out 
of place in the establishment of Christianity, we 
should rather be surprised if it were not there. But 
to say beforehand that, since Christianity postulates 
the miraculous, you refuse to consider it because you 
do not believe in the miraculous, is an unscientific 
and illogical way of proceeding. It is not a judicial 
examination of the case, but a prejudicial discarding 
of it. | 

In ordinary matters we despise a prejudiced per- 
son. We know he is impossible. Now if you an- 
alyze the word prejudice, what do you find? It 
means advance judgment, judging before you get the 
evidence. It comes from the two Latin words pre 
and judicium. Pre means before or in advance of, 


56 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


— judicium means judgment or decision. Now to 
judge before weighing the evidence is a judgment 
that is called prejudiced. 

That is the sort of judgment those pass on Chris- 
tianity who refuse to consider her credentials on the 
ground that they are of a supernaturual or miracu- 
lous character. Of course they are. If they were 
not, the whole structure would be foundationless. 
For the principles and foundation of the Christian 
religion are not natural but supernatural. 

You may say that it is one thing to assert this, 
but another to prove it. Very true. That is why 
we propose to prove it by presenting the Christian 
credentials. 

These credentials are all such that they fall un- 
der human observation and inspection. There is 
nothing hidden or dark about them. The facts are 
open to the closest scrutiny. Those facts we shall 
produce and then challenge an explanation. If no 
human or natural agencies can be assigned as the 
cause, it is logical, scientific and necessary to assign 
a higher cause, and that we call the supernatural 
or miraculous. 

Is there anything about this procedure, fair-minded 
man, that a sensible person can reasonably object to? 
It the opponents of religion refuse to meet her on 
such a field, are they not already defeated! 

The Jews rejected the Messiah because they would 
not believe He was Jehovah. Jesus appreciated their 


A JUDICIAL EXAMINATION 57 


high notion of the deity and commended them for 
it. He sympathized with their position. He knew 
their awful reverence for God and how hard it was 
for them to identify a human being with the Creator. 

But He proceeded in a scientific way. He told 
them how wonderful was God, and more than af- 
firmed their great idea of Jehovah. But He also 
proceeded to do the things which only the Almighty 
and Infinite Creator could do. 

From nothing to something is a transition which is 
infinite. There is no measure between nothing and 
something. To bridge over that chasm requires in- 
finite power and intelligence. That was the char- 
acter of creation in the beginning when God by His 
word made all things out of nothing. 

If infidels reject that idea of creation, the Jews 
did not, and it was to them Christ addressed Him- 
self when presenting His credentials. To show 
them that He had creative power, and that conse- 
quently He was God, He accomplished by His word 
only, in their very presence things so wonderful that 
He could point to them and say: ‘‘ If you do not be- 
lieve me, at least believe the works which I do.” 

These works they did not deny. But, like the 
modern opponents of Christianity, they were preju- 
diced against Him, and since they could not deny 
His miracles, they attributed them to occult influ- 
ences. 

Jesus, by His word only, created sight in the 


58 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


blind, in those born blind; He called back to life 
Lazarus, who was dead four days and whose body 
was already offensive from corruption. Thousands 
of Jews saw these miracles and many others. They 
never denied these facts. But they did not consider 
them judicially, but prejudicially. 

And that is what many do today, and for that 
reason they reject Christianity as the Jews rejected 
Christ. It is for this reason that before presenting 
the credentials of Christianity, it is necessary to 
insist on a judicial examination of them. 

if Christianity did not entail such consequences in 
man’s life and view of life, there would be no need 
of insisting on this unprejudiced review of the evi- 
dence in its case. In examining the documents of 
Rome or Greece men are dispassionate. The result 
of their labors is only academic. But on their ac- 
ceptance or rejection of Christianity there hangs, 
not an academic, but a living result. 

They may say that classic Greece and Rome deal 
not at all with the miraculous. Why therefore 
should Judea? Because Greece and Rome gave us 
only human institutions, but out of Judea came the 
divine and the divine postulates the miraculous. If 
there were not miracles associated with Christianity, 
it should be rejected. Yet some modern sages reject 
it because of the miraculous. 

Miracles are the trade mark of the supernatural. 
As Christianity claims to be supernatural, she could 


A JUDICIAL EXAMINATION 59 


be rejected if she had not the trade mark of the su- 
pernatural, which is miracles. Now just because she 
has the trade mark of her origin and character, for 
that very reason the opponents of the miraculous find 
fault. If she did not show miraculous, they would 
find greater fault. But there would be no need of 
that, for she never would have existed to challenge 
their investigation if she were not endowed with the 
miraculous. 

If you should ask a rationalist if it were possible 
to accept an institution as divine without divine evi- 
dence, he would say: Certainly not. If you should 
ask him if it were possible or not for the Master of 
creation to do something divine on earth, he would 
be obliged to say it must be possible, otherwise the 
Head of creation would not be the head. 

You behold, therefore, that the stand against the 
miraculous igs neither scientific, logical nor judicial. 
Anyone who denies that the Creator can interfere 
with His own work is refusing to Him what they 
must grant to the ordinary designer or workman. 

You will say that this argument postulates a per- 
sonal God. Yes, it does. If you do not believe in 
a personal God, this treatise is not for you. But 
the next time your child asks you who made your 
watch, tell him it made itself. For the denial of a 
personal God means the same as regards the world. 

Bringing therefore a judicial mind to the investi- 
gation of the credentiais of Christianity, I trust you 


60 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


will consider and weigh facts. Do not color or dis- 
tort or read anything into them. Just regard what 
occurred and ask yourself could any natural cause 
produce that effect? If the effect transcends all 
natural agency, be honest and scientific, and admit 
that a cause higher than nature is at work, a super- 
natural cause. And since a supernatural cause is 
evidence of divinity, accept the effect as divine. 

If we proceed thus, we shall see that the estab- 
lishment of Christianity is a divine fact, that the 
religion of Jesus Christ is divine, that in following 
that religion, we are in the pathway that leads truly 
and securely to God, our Father in heaven. 


CHAPTER IV 
THE GOSPELS AS A HISTORIC DOCUMENT 


O reasonable person would reject Christian- 

ity if he believed the Gospel account true. 

For therein Jesus Christ solemnly states 

that He is God, and moreover proves His statement 

by divine deeds. Why then did the Jews reject Him, 

for they were witnesses of all that the Gospels re- 
cord ¢ 

They were indeed witnesses, but they did not see 
Christ in the white light of reality, but in the col- 
ored light of their own passions and ambitions. We 
know how a person may see green or yellow or red 
if he looks through glass of those colors. And that 
is what the Jewish leaders did, as we shall see. But 
the people at large, who saw things right, believed 
in Christ and acclaimed Him the Messiah. 

It was otherwise with the leaders, who were rab- 
idly antagonistic to Christ and His mission. ‘They 
rejected Him because He did not give them what 
they wanted. They looked for a worldly king and 
worldly glory. He offered them an eternal King and 
a heavenly kingdom. 


And why were they not eager to receive an eternal 
61 


62 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


King and a heavenly kingdom? Because they had 
their hearts set on the things of this world and re- 
fused to hear Jesus aright or to see Him aright. 

Moreover, Christ upbraided them for their vices 
and especially for their pride and hypocrisy. He 
showed them to the people as oppressors and de 
ceivers, and they realized that if He prevailed they 
would lose their power and their prestige. That 
made them hate Him, as vicious men always hate the 
just man who discerns and flays wrong doing. In 
their rage and disappointment they saw Christ by a 
distorted vision. 

For that reason He called them blind. Having 
eyes they saw not, He declared, and having ears they 
heard not. Oh, they saw and heard, but in the 
same way that an opponent in a lawsuit sees and hears 
the evidence and arguments of the other side. 

Jesus gave all the evidence that was sufficient to 
convince them, but He did not force them to accept 
it, Many did accept it. The people as a whole ac- 
claimed Him the Messiah. They were not preju- 
diced, at least not to the extent of the Scribes and 
Pharisees. 

At a council of these opponents of Jesus, one of 
them arose and said: “ Do you see that we prevail 
nothing? behold the whole world is gone after 
Him.” ? The terrible example of these misleaders 
of the people should give us a wholesome fear of 

1 John, 12. 19. 


A HISTORIC DOCUMENT 63 


being carried away by passion in our judgment. 

Now it is possible to reject the Gospels just as it 
was possible for the Jews to reject Christ, and for 
the same reasons. That is why I insist so much on 
a judicial and not a prejudicial investigation. We 
shall put before you, therefore, the Gospels, and ask 
you to consider their claims, just as Jesus asked the 
Jews to consider His. 

In passing, let me say, is it not a wonderful tribute 
to the truth of the Gospels that they narrate this re- 
jection of Jesus by His own people? Nothing could 
injure the cause of Christianity more, naturally 
speaking, than to announce that its Founder was re- 
jected by His own. This just in passing, and as a 
straw to indicate how the wind of truth blows through 
the pages of the sacred narrative. 

If the Gospels are a true historical record, they 
are a credential for Christianity better and sounder 
than any credential ever presented for anything else 
in this world. We propose to demonstrate that we 
have better grounds for accepting the truth of the 
Gospels than we have for that of any book handed 
down to us. 

We shall show that if we reject the Gospels as a 
true narrative, we must by the same procedure re- 
ject all history. On account of the seriousness of the 
matter before us, we shall apply even more severe 
tests to the Gospel narrative than we should to any 
other. 


64 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


The first proof we give that the Gospels are true 
is that in all the heat and bitterness of the strife be- 
tween the early Christians and their opponents, it 
was never charged that the Gospels were not true. 

First, there was the terrible struggle against the 
Jews. If ever there were fanatics, the Jewish lead- 
ers were such. They realized that the success of 
the new religion of Christ meant the death of all 
their claims and prerogatives. It meant the end of 
their vision of worldly power. It meant the subver- 
sion of all that they had constructed on their carnal 
expectations. 

What was their best weapon of attack? Why, to 
show that the Gospel narrative was not true. Did 
they do so, or even attempt to do so? Absolutely 
not. In all the charges and assaults of the Jews 
against Christianity, and they were many and bitter, 
not one suggestion is made against the truth of the 
Gospel narrative. 

That is most remarkable. The Jews were right 
on the ground. They had more interest in disprov- 
ing the Gospel facts than the unbelievers of our day, 
yet they made no attempt to discredit a single re- 
corded occurrence. 

That they would eagerly deny the Gospel truth if 
they could is evidence from the fact that previously 
they tried to lie in regard to the Resurrection.2, But 
they were caught at it, and that too is recorded in 

2 Matt. 28. 12. 


A HISTORIC DOCUMENT 65 


the Gospel.? This shows that if they did not assail 
the Gospel truths, it was not because they did not 
want to. But they could not, so they made no at- 
tempt, after the sorry failure in regard to the Resur- 
rection. 

When we consider that the religion of Christ could 
have been discredited in its infancy by substantiating 
one one-hundredth part of the charges now made 
against the veracity of the Gospels, we marvel that 
no such attempts were ever made. 

The attempt to discredit the Resurrection shows 
how eager the Jews were to destroy the evidence of 
Christianity if they could. Another instance is also 
in the Gospel itself, where they tried to kill Lazarus 
because he was the living evidence of his own resur- 
rection.* That shows that they would stop at noth- 
ing to discredit the cause of Christ. 

Yet with all their animosity, the Jews never made 
a charge which called in question the veracity of 
the Gospels. They tried other means to upset the 
new religion, but never did they assail the Gospel 
truth. Now that fact alone, under the circumstances, 
is as strong a proof for the truth of the Gospels as 
could be demanded. 

Let us see by an example just what this fact signi- 
fies. Suppose you were a stranger from the mining 
districts of the West, and that you came to New 
York with plenty of money and little of the nice 

3 Matt. 28. 16. 4Jobn, 12. 10. 


66 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


ways of society. You intended to establish yourself 
right on Fifth Avenue among the very élite. They 
do not want you, they put every obstacle in your way, 
they conspire to keep you out. 

But gold is mighty. You finally get an option on 
the very site you desire and the very site where, of 
all others, you are not wanted. ‘The neighbors take 
measures to oppose you at every step. ‘They try to 
influence against you the man who proposes to sell 
you his place. But gold is more persuasive than 
talk, and you strike the bargain. 

They get the best lawyers in town to see if they 
cannot block the deal, but it goes through. ‘Then 
they employ the shrewdest real estate lawyers to look 
up the titles to the property and see if there is not 
some clause or flaw that would upset the deal. ‘They 
would like nothing better than to throw some uncer- 
tainty into the transaction and thus alter it or in- 
validate it. But after the most careful scrutiny, 
with all the documents at their disposal and with 
the greatest incentives to discover a flaw, they can 
discover nothing that would invalidate the transac- 
tion. 

In a thousand ways they endeavor to ostracize and 
get rid of their undesirable neighbor. They go to 
great expense and do everything in their power to 
dislodge him. But he becomes better and better 
established. After exhausting every means in their 
power, they again realize that the one sure way of 


A HISTORIC DOCUMENT 67 


getting him out is to pick a flaw in the genuineness 
of his title to the property. If they can destroy or 
impair his credentials to the place, they can make 
short work of him. 

So again with deliberation and malice, they seek 
some flaw in his credentials. But they can find no 
item which cannot bear the light of investigation. 
They drop the matter, but oppose him with all their 
might and in every conceivable way. Finally, after 
a few generations, his family is in as good or better 
standing than those who in the beginning were too 
good for him. 

At length this particular family becomes the leader 
of the exclusive social set. Some envious ones, who 
resent the leadership of this family, plan to discredit 
it. Being unable to hurt it in any way, on account 
of its being so well established, the opposition goes 
back to the beginning of the family and denies that 
it has any right at all to its present status, as it 
secured its place originally by fraud. 

And to make good their accusations, they bring an 
array of learned experts to testify that such a man 
as the founder of the family, and such a family it- 
self, never could have got a rightful foothold in an 
exclusive neighborhood. ‘It is too late in the day 
for such nonsense,” would be the general remark. 
It would be evident to all that it was harder to get 
established in such a place than it was to stay there. 
It would be evident that in such a neighborhood the 


68 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


society of the day took good care not to overlook a 
ready means of stopping the intruder. 

Now, after Christianity has been in possession for 
many centuries, it is too late to question its one great- 
est credential, the Gospel truth. The time to do 
that was at the start. It was not done then because 
it could not be done. And if it could not be done 
then, it is absurd to think it can be done now. 

The converted Jews and the Christianized pagans 
had more reasons to question the Gospel truths than 
the rationalists of today. To them it was a new 
thing, an absolutely strange thing, a revolutionary 
thing. To the moderns it is none of these. The 
rationalists oppose Christianity from the ranks of a 
society habituated to the maxims, the culture and the 
morality of Christianity. Their opposition can be 
nothing compared to that of the early opponents. 
That those right on the ground failed to use a weapon 
which meant victory is a sufficient argument against 
the modern pagans who try to employ that weapon. 

A lawyer or a theologian will recognize this argu- 
ment as that of prescription. But this treatise does 
not aim at using learned arguments, but only com- 
mon sense. After all, that is the very best argu- 
ment. It is the one that appeals to ordinary people, 
and, in the long run, the ordinary people cannot be 
deceived in a matter which does not flatter their 
pride or passions. 

Whenever the multitude has been misled, it has 


A HISTORIC DOCUMENT 69 


been by appealing to some motive which led them to 
hope for wealth or pleasure. But apart from such 
inducements, the people judge rightly. The com- 
mon sense of mankind, when not tampered with, 
may be trusted. 

Every century some new and learned theory is set 
up, with fine arguments from learned sources, and a 
following is obtained among the intellectuals. The 
common people go on as usual, and, as usual, they 
see the obsequies of the new learned theory. 

It was different with Christ. He did not start 
by talking. He first did things, things which halted 
the attention of the common people. When He had 
shown them that He was a power, a power more 
than anything on this earth, He began to teach. 
And that is why the whole multitude of the people 
followed Him. 

But the learned Seribes and Pharisees, with their 
subtle arguments, did not listen to Him nor learn 
from Him. Instead, they set themselves to conspire 
against Him. And in order to let evil work its 
worst against the Truth, He let them have their way, 
and thus showed by His passion and death that He 
was indeed God. The Roman soldier was just a 
common man, but after the Crucifixion he went down 
from Calvary repeating: “‘ Indeed, that was the Son 
of God.”5 The common soldier saw what the 
learned leaders did not see. And it is so today. 

5 Mark, 13. 39. 


"0 OREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


So I have presented as the first proof for the truth 
of the Gospel record a simple statement of fact, which 
though so simple, I regard just as convincing as the 
more philosophical and critical demonstrations which 
are to follow. For I hold always that the truth is 
open and plain. It needs not to be sought for with 
a lantern. It shows in the daylight of common 
sense. 

If you go over history, you will find that it 1s 
not the learned argumentations that have effected big 
things, but the simple and open demonstrations which 
required no artificial elucidation. So the fact that 
in the early centuries the Gospels were never ques- 
tioned by Jew, pagan or heretic, is a better witness 
to their truth than any other that can be brought 
forth. 

To give an example of the regard in which the 
Gospels were held, as a historic document, J may men- 
tion the fact that, when the heretic Marcion, born 
A.D. 110, wished to oppose Christianity, he did not 
dare to deny the truth of the Gospel record, but 
rather produced a mutilated copy which favored his 
heresy. The fraud was detected immediately. This 
shows two things, the reverence in which the Gospels 
were held, and the impossibility of altering them. 

However, as there are many who in this age accept 
only scientific demonstrations, I shall now proceed to 
prove scientifically three things which will establish 


A HISTORIC DOCUMENT 71 


the genuineness of the Gospels: first, that they were 
written shortly after the events recorded; second, 
that they were not altered in any essential respect; 
and third, that they narrate the truth. ‘These three 
points constitute a historic document. 

And first, that they were written in the first cen- 
tury, that is, at the time when the things recorded 
happened or were fresh in mind. Rather, we shall 
prove more than that, for in the course of the demon- 
stration it will be shown that the Gospels were writ- 
ten by eye witnesses of the events, or by those to 
whom eye witnesses dictated them. 

For the Gospels were written by four authors 
called Evangelists. They were called Evangelists 
because that is the Greek word to describe the an- 
nouncers of these sacred things. There were four 
writers and each records what he saw, or what was 
dictated to him by those who saw the occurrences. 
Two of the Gospels were written by Apostles, St. 
Matthew and St. John. The other two were the 
work of companions of the Apostles, St. Mark and 
St. Luke. 

The authors, therefore, were men living at the 
very time the things which they narrate occurred. 
The most advanced and searching criticism now ad- 
mits all this.. Critics who started out to upset the 
authorship of the Gospels have ended by acknowledg- 
ing the truth of the Apostolic authorship. 


72 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


And now to prove that the Gospels were written 
in Apostolic times, that is, in the age when the events 
recorded took place. 

The Apostle St. John lived right up to the second 
century. His Gospel, it is claimed, was written 
only a few years before his death. The other Gos- 
pels, those by Matthew, Mark and Luke, it is claimed, 
were written previously. We must prove this claim. 
And we shall do it by summoning witnesses who 
lived in the Apostolic age. They will be writers 
acknowledged by all critics as reliable and capable 
witnesses. If we can certify that the Gospels were 
in use shortly after the death of the last Apostle, it 
is evident that they are a contemporaneous record, 
and that is the thing we have to establish in the first 
place. 

We are not now concerned about what is in the 
Gospels, or if any change ever occurred in them. 
These points will come up right after this first point 
is settled? Our aim now is to show that the four 
gospels were accepted authoritatively shortly after 
the first century. If we can bring creditable wit- 
nesses who lived as close to the Evangelists as we 
are to Dickens, Thackeray or Scott, we can rely on 
them absolutely. And we can produce such wit- 
nesses. They will testify to the existence of the Gos- 
pels in their day, and to their apostolic authorship. 

The first witness we call is Justin, who was born 
a pagan about the year a. p. 100, the end of the first 


A HISTORIC DOCUMENT 73 


century. At thirty years of age he was converted 
to Christianity. Twenty years later, that is, 150 
A. D., he addressed a document to the Roman Em- 
peror, setting forth a plain statement of Christian- 
ity. He declared that in standing forth as the cham- 
pion of Christianity, he knew le must expect perse- 
cution and death, but he boldly proclaimed the reli- 
gion of Jesus Christ. He was arrested and be- 
headed in the year 165. 

In his celebrated address to the Emperor, which 
he calls his Apology, Justin says: ‘‘ The Apostles 
in their memoirs that are called Gospels.” ® Again, 
in his Dialogues, he states that these Gospels have 
authority because they are considered as Scripture.‘ 
He also affirms that the Church in her services reads 
these Gospels with the same regard as the writings 
of the Prophets. Referring to the Evangelists, he 
says they were Apostles or companions of the Apos- 
tles.° This accords with the accepted belief in re- 
gard to the Gospels, Matthew and John being Apos- 
tles and Mark and Luke companions of the Apostles. 

Here, then, we have the testimony of a man who 
was born before the last of the Evangelists died. He 
was not born in Christianity but embraced it from 
paganism. He spoke publicly in an address to the 
Emperor. He was a scholar and a philosopher. He 
gave his life for his testimony. His statements are 


6I Apol. 65. 3. 8I Apol. 67. 3. 
7 Dial. 49. cire. Matt. 17. 9 Dial. 103. 


74 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


known to be genuine history. There is not in all 
history a more creditable witness. He mentions the 
Gospels as being publicly read in the churches in his 
day. He refers to them as well known documents 
only a few years after the Apostles had passed away. 

Our next witness is Clement of Alexandria, born 
at the end of the first century. Ina dispute with a 
heretic who misquoted the Gospels, he said: “ This 
passage is not found in the four Gospels we have 
received.” 1° Jrenzus, our third witness, born about 
130 a.p., makes mention of the same four Gospels.** 
Tertullian, the great and learned Tertullian, born 
near the end of the second century, frequently gives 
the names of the four Evangelists.** 

Clement, Irenzeus and Tertullian make a trinity of 
witnesses that the most critical jurors would have to 
credit. What adds weight to their testimony is the 
fact that they lived in parts far separated from one 
another, Clement in Egypt, Tertullian in Carthage 
and Ireneus in Lyons. 

I could dwell on the fragment of Muratori, which 
dates from about a. p. 170, and the testimony of Ta- 
tian, born 120 a. p., but the evidence already adduced 
is more than sufficient for a candid mind, and if the 
mind is not candid, no amount or quality of evidence 
will suffice. 

I rest the case as regards the first point, therefore, 


10 Migne, P. G. 8. 1193. 12 Migne, P. L. 2. 363. 
11 Migne, P. G. 7. 884. 


A HISTORIC DOCUMENT 75 


on the evidence of men of unquestionable integrity 
and intelligence, who lived as close to the Gospel 
authors as we do to Dickens, Thackeray and Scott. 
It is demonstrated, therefore, that the Gospels were 
written in the first century, that is, in the century 
in which the Evangelists lived. 

We now take up the second point: Were the Gos- 
pels changed in any essential respect? I hope to 
prove conclusively that they were not. 

My line of argument will be this: It would be 
impossible nowadays for anyone to make a change, 
say, in Dickens’s “Oliver Twist,” of Thackeray’s 
“Vanity Fair” or Scott’s “Ivanhoe,” without dis- 
covery, protest and condemnation. During the lives 
of these authors, they themselves would notice any 
attempt to alter their works. In the short period 
since their death, the general readers would quickly 
advert to and brand any mutilation of these classics. 
That is certain. Of course, here and there, there 
might occur a printer’s mistake which people would 
let pass, or, if in some unessential detail there was 
an inaccuracy, it might escape observation or criti- 
cism. But these books could suffer no essential al- 
teration without the reading public’s indignation and 
condemnation. 

Now, if in works of mere fiction the reading pub- 
lic would act as custodians of the integrity of a work, 
how much more would it be the case when the book 
in question was one that meant life and death to 


76 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


those concerned. We have demonstrated that the 
Gospels were written by the Evangelists, who lived 
in the first century. These Gospels were the docu- 
mentary evidence of Christianity. They were more 
to the early Christians than the Constitution of the 
United States is to us. 

How carefully is that document safeguarded. If 
the slightest change in it were attempted, would it 
not immediately start an uproar? It would simply 
be impossible to tamper with that constitutional docu- 
ment. The Constitution of Christianity was more 
inviolable. 

We know from well authenticated history how the 
change of one word in the creed of the Church 
brought on a tumult throughout the Roman Empire. 
A little particle, que, attached to filio, and which 
some heretics wished to have dropped, caused a split 
among the faithful which almost tore asunder the 
Christian peoples. If in a matter of the creed, 
which was transmitted from the Apostles by tradi- 
tion, no alteration was possible, how much more was 
it impossible to effect a change in the sacred writings 
of those same Apostles. 

We can form no idea of the veneration of these ere- 
dentials of Christianity among the followers of the 
religion of Christ. To even think of making any 
alteration in these writings was regarded as sacri- 
legious. How then could these documents be al- 
tered? They were read in all the churches through- 


A HISTORIC DOCUMENT 17 


out the Christian world. They were the same every- 
where. Even if in some particular place a priest or 
bishop or layman should attempt to make an altera- 
tion, it would be discovered and labelled at once by 
its disagreement with the Gospels everywhere else. 

Just imagine the shock you would get if, in church 
on a Sunday, you should hear read from the pulpit 
something different from the Gospel as you know 
it. Suppose the pastor took up the Gospels and be- 
gan thus: “The Holy Gospel according to St. Bar- 
tholomew.” No matter how inattentive or drowsy 
the congregation might be, it would sit right up, 
amazed. And, unless an explanation were given, 
the pastor would be reported to the bishop. 

Or suppose the pastor read from the Gospels that 
Christ was born at Jerusalem, or that Jesus raised 
Judas to life, would not everyone immediately take 
notice? Well, the early Christians knew the Gos- 
pels virtually by heart. If the very slightest change 
were made, they would take exception, It was 
simply a matter of impossibility for anyone to take 
even the slightest liberty with these Scriptures. 

No documents in the history of mankind had such 
significance and importance as the Gospels. That 
statement cannot be challenged. All history attests 
it. How then could they be altered? ‘That they 
have not been altered is the verdict of the best schol- 
ars of the world. Even hostile critics have been 
obliged to hold up their hands and surrender uncon- 


78 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY, 


ditionally to the integrity of the Gospel narrative. 

I conclude this second point with the following 
extract from one of the most erudite Scripture schol- 
ars of modern times: “ Although every attainable 
source has been exhausted; although the scholars of 
every age have gleaned for their readings; although 
the Scripture versions of every nation, Arabic, 
Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, and Ethiopian, have been 
ransacked for their renderings; although manuscripts 
of every age from the sixteenth back to the third cen- 
tury, and of every country, have been again and again 
visited by industrious swarms to rifle them of their 
treasures; although having exhausted the stores of 
the West, critics have traveled like naturalists into 
distant lands to discover new specimens, have visited 
the recesses of Mount Athos, or the unexplored l- 
braries of the Egyptian and Syrian deserts,— yet 
nothing has been discovered, no, not one single vari- 
ous reading, which can throw doubt upon any Gospel 
passage before considered certain or decisive in favor 
of any important doctrine.” 1% 

But all this is of no account if what the Gospels 
tell us is not true. It is to no purpose to know that 
the Gospels were written in the first century by the 
Apostles, and that what they wrote has come down 
to us essentially unchanged, if the things they nar- 
rate are not true. Having demonstrated the first two 
points of our thesis, I now proceed with the third and 


13 Wiseman, ‘‘ Science and Revelation,” 1. 10. 


A HISTORIC DOCUMENT 79 


the most important. I invite the keenest scrutiny 
of this demonstration, and I ask you, no matter what 
your belief, to look at it, as far as you can, unpreju- 
diced. 

If the matter stands as well substantiated as any- 
thing you have ever demanded in other matters, I 
ask you to accept the conclusion, regardless of your 
sentiments. If the light of investigation shows that 
the Gospels are as true as the truest thing you know 
of, you will not be acting reasonably unless you ac- 
knowledge it. And if you do not wish to act rea- 
sonably in this vital matter, you surely will have no 
cause to complain, when it is too late. I should not 
be so outspoken and positive in these statements un- 
less I felt certain of my ground. 

Jt is not with presumption that I present the fol- 
lowing demonstration, but with the assurance which 
comes from evidence so great and so abundant that 
no other volume in the world can claim as much. 

As this third point constitutes a distinct and 
unique testimony to the credentials of Christianity, 
I make it the subject of the chapter which follows. 


CHAPTER V 
THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS 


i have shown in the preceding chapter 
that the writers of the Gospels were 
contemporaries of the events, that is, 

they were actual witnesses of what they record, or 
else were associated with the witnesses. St. John 
and St. Matthew actually beheld what they narrated. 
St. Luke and St. Mark were the secretaries of the 
Apostles Paul and Peter. 

Also we have shown that no change was made or 
could possibly be made in the Gospels once they were 
published. These two points being settled, it now 
remains to demonstrate to a certainty that the facts 
recorded by the Evangelists, and transmitted un- 
changed in the Gospels, are true. 

I propose to do this in the same way that we now 
establish the truth of a matter in a court of law. 
I propose to place the case before a jury of readers, 
and hope to do so in such a way that it will appear 
as clear as day that the evidence for the truth of 
the Gospel facts is stronger and better than what is 
demanded to substantiate a case before a judge and 


jury. 
80 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS 81 


If we set about to investigate the truth of a state- 
ment in ordinary matters, we consider three things: 
the person who makes the statement, the fact which 
he states, and the character of the persons who be- 
lieved it. If the person who states the fact 1s un- 
reliable or an interested party, we put little faith 
in him. If the fact is a very unusual one, we de- 
mand the strongest confirmation of it. If the per- 
sons who believed it were ignorant or gullible we do 
not value their testimony much. By looking care- 
fully, therefore, into who the author of a statement 
was, the nature of that statement, and the character 
of those who believed it, we can arrive at a true 
verdict. 

Now I propose to be unusually exacting in regard 
to the evidence on these three points. If at the 
close you can perceive no flaw in the case as pre 
sented, I ask you to render a verdict accordingly. 
Weigh the matter carefully, scrutinize the evidence 
as closely as you would a business proposition on 
which your entire success depended. And above all, 
I ask you to consider the case judicially and not 
prejudicially. 

And first, as regards the authors of the Gospel 
statements, what was their character and condition ? 
Were they credible witnesses of what they record ? 
That analytic genius, Pascal, said of these witnesses: 
“T readily believe the histories of witnesses who 
sealed their testimony with their death.” The writ- 


82 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


ers of the Gospel account died for their testimony. 
That shows that they were at least sincere. 

Sincerity is a prime requisite in a witness, but it 
is not enough. A man may be sincere, but at the 
same time mistaken or imposed upon. Were these 
authors mistaken or imposed upon? They relate 
facts and facts only. They draw no conclusions. 
They simply state what transpired. They merely 
record what happened. 

All the Gospels except St. John’s were written 
close to the time of the occurrences related. If any- 
thing they reported was not so, the people would know 
it and deny it. The Jews who witnessed what the 
Gospels record never called the truth of the record 
in question. The things that are recorded occurred 
in the full light of day. They were in the open. 
Thousands of onlookers beheld them. If the authors 
of the Gospels were mistaken or imposed upon, so 
were all the onlookers. 

Such a supposition is impossible. So vast a multi- 
tude might be mistaken as regards a special event 
or a single occurrence. But the Gospel narrative 
runs over a period of three years and relates facts 
that occurred in all parts of Judea and Galilee, and 
in the presence of multitudes numbering thousands. 
Were all these vast assemblages mistaken or imposed 
upon during that long period and in such various 
places? To suppose that all these people were vic- 
tims of fraud or hallucination is a greater demand 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS — 83 


on our common sense than anything related in the 
Gospels. 

The authors then were sincere, and they were not 
mistaken or imposed upon. Is there anything more 
you would demand in a witness? But we shall add 
more because we want to be very exacting with our 
witnesses. 

Their testimony for the most part goes directly 
against their own interests. They narrate how their 
Master and Leader was set at naught. They de- 
scribe Him as the victim of the scorn and cruelty of 
His own people. They show Him spat upon, 
scourged, paraded as a fool, mock-crowned, and 
finally tortured to death on the Cross. They tell 
how He was abandoned even by themselves. They 
show Him weak and very human in the Garden of 
Gethsemani, fatigued and disappointed at Jacob’s 
Well, and finally weeping at the grave of Lazarus. 

The picture which they paint of their Hero is, 
notwithstanding these touches, such a portrait, that 
no human being could draw it unless he were de- 
scribing a reality. The portrait of Christ as given 
in the Gospel narrative is so far beyond the highest 
conception of the human mind that it never could 
have been given to us unless the writers had before 
them the very personality they were describing. 
“To invent a Newton,” says Parker, “one would 
have to be a Newton himself. What man could 
invent a person like Jesus?” 


g4 OREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


A few ordinary men without culture or philosophy 
could not present to the world the most sublime char- 
acter known to mankind. They simply reported 
what they heard and saw, and the result is the life 
of Christ, the most stupendous achievement of the 
mind of man. The words of J. J. Rousseau will 
here occur to the reader: ‘If the life and death of 
Soerates are those of a wise man, the life and death 
of Jesus are those of a God.” 

Our witnesses, therefore, are not only sincere, they 
were not only not mistaken or imposed upon, but 
they narrate what goes against their own interests, 
and besides, tell us something which, if it is not so, 
was a matter of impossibility for them to invent or 
describe. 

All crities are agreed that the character and teach- 
ing of Jesus are as different and superior to all others 
as the sky is above the earth. That character and 
that teaching were not the invention of four or- 
dinary writers. Each of the Evangelists wrote at 
different times and places and recorded different 
events peculiar to his own Gospel. Yet they all give 
us the same sublime portraiture. 

Now if they give us a character that is unlike any- 
thing else in the world, why should they not also 
give us deeds that are altogether unlike the ordinary 
doings of the world? And they do. You cannot 
deny the character they present, why should you deny 
the deeds ? 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS — 85 


Moreover, they had no motive in describing what 
was not so. Mather, they had every motive for not 
recording the events at all. It brought on them the 
hostility and persecution of the powerful ones of 
Israel. Unless what the Evangelists tell us is the 
exact truth, how would they dare tell it to the very 
rulers whom it would offend and anger. 

If it were not the exact truth in every respect, 
would not the Scribes and Pharisees who were dis- 
credited by the narration rise up and proclaim 
against it? They never did. They could not. All 
the people knew the facts and that they were as re- 
corded. The Gospel writers indict the rulers of the 
people, and these powerful ones reply only by 
threats of punishment! Nothing parallel to it has 
occurred in the world. Only the truth could make 
the writers so fearless and the rulers so fearsome. 

To sum up, then, in regard to the authors of the 
Gospel narrative. They stand forth sincere, unde- 
ceived, disinterested, and describing events beyond 
their powers of invention. Every man of them 
suffered persecution and violent death for his testi- 
mony. hey presented their narrative to the very 
persons who could challenge it and were interested 
in challenging it, but who did not challenge it. 
They could not, and they knew it. 

I ask you if ever in the history of the world there 
stood forth better witnesses. JI ask you if the annals 
of human tribunals present more acceptable evidence. 


86 OREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


Unless then you wish to go against all judicial pro- 
cedure, you must admit that these writers are to be 
believed. 

Let us now look into the facts which they relate. 
The facts are extraordinary. That is what we should 
expect. As Christ was extraordinary, we should ex- 

pect to find His achievements so. And we do, 
To be surprised at the wonderful things done by 
Christ is not unnatural. Jesus intended that they 
should excite surprise, and great surprise. That 
was why He did them. They were His credentials. 
He came as the greatest Reformer ever known to 
mankind. He had to have wonderful credentials. 

His mission was to change fundamentally the ways 
of the world. Nothing similar was ever before or 
since attempted. He had to show that He was en- 
titled to legislate for mankind. He declared he was 
God. He had to do things which would substantiate 
that claim. Instead of the miraculous character of 
His deeds being a difficulty in the case, it would be 
a bigger difficulty if they did not have that character. 

It is a strange world. Christ comes with divine 
credentials of His divinity and they are rejected. 
Yet, if He presented anything less than divine 
credentials, He would be doubly rejected. 

Now the fact is that He carried out His divine 
mission. He established Christianity in the world. 
It is here today. We can see it before our eyes. 
How did He do it without divine credentials ? 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS 87 


These credentials were the wonderful deeds recorded 
in the Gospel. 

And now to the consideration of them. Again I 
plead for a judicial hearing of evidence, and not a 
prejudicial. If an ordinary case requires an un- 
prejudiced jury, much more does this very extraor- 
dinary one. 

The facts recorded in the Gospels are chiefly 
miraculous. Suppose that, instead of going into a 
lot of details, we take some one of these facts and 
let our case stand or fall by it. In order to be very 
fair, we shall take one of the most stupendous of the 
Gospel miracles. If we demonstrate the truth of this 
miracle to the satisfaction of a reasonable mind, we 
thereby prove the miraculous character of the Gospel 
contents. 

The fact we shall consider is the resurrection of 
Lazarus from the dead. This fact concerned a 
prominent citizen of Jerusalem. It had as wit- 
nesses the very bitterest opponents of Christ. That 
makes a good setting for the case. 

Let me introduce the evidence for this fact by an 
observation of M. de Broglie’s in his history of the 
Church and the Roman Empire: “The events re- 
lated in the Gospels do not belong, like the records 
of ancient religions, to a remote, semi-heroic, and 
semi-barbaric age, nor are they confined to some un- 
known, deserted land. It was in the bosom of ad- 
vanced civilization, in the principal city of a Roman 


88 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


province, visited by Pompey, and described by 
Tacitus, that Jesus Christ preached, established His 
Church, and sacrificed His life. His biography has 
not come down to us from mouth to mouth in 
rhapsodies heightened by popular enthusiasm and 
credulity. Four simple precise narratives, agreeing 
in their assertions, taken down by ocular or con- 
temporaneous witnesses in a perfectly intelligible 
language, are the documents upon which the history 
of Jesus Christ is established.” 

It is then from this record, the best authenticated 
record in the world, that we take the following fact. 

If it is shown by careful analysis that this fact 1s 
as stated, there can be no hesitation in accepting the 
other miraculous deeds recorded in the Gospels. If 
this fact is conclusively established, it proves that 
the miraculous is not only possible, but that it was 
an actual occurrence. As this is one of the greatest 
miracles reported in the Gospels, it follows that its 
confirmation removes all inherent difficulties in re- 
gard to the other miraculous deeds described in the 
sacred volume. 

It also puts the divine seal on the mission of Jesus 
Christ, for this miracle was wrought by Him as a 
specific challenge to His opponents. Before the fact, 
He pointed to it as a confirmation by Almighty God 

of the mission that He came on earth to fulfil. This 
will appear very clearly in the course of our con- 
siderations. 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS 89 


J give here in the very words of the text the narra- 
tion of the occurrence: 

“Now there was a certain man sick named 
Lazarus, of Bethania, of the town of Mary and of 
Martha her sister. (And Mary was she _ that 
anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his 
feet with her hair: whose brother Lazarus was sick.) 
His sisters therefore sent to him saying: Lord, be- 
hold, he whom thou lovest is sick. And Jesus 
hearing it, said to them: This sickness is not unto 
death, but for the glory of God: that the Son of God 
may be glorified by it. 

“ Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, 
and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he 
was sick, he still remained in the same place two days. 
Then after that, he said to his disciples: Let us 
go into Judea again. The disciples say to him: 
Rabbi, the Jews but now sought to stone thee: and 
goest thou thither again? Jesus answered: Are 
there not twelve hours of the day? If a man walk 
in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the 
light of this world: but if he walk in the night, he 
stumbleth, because the light is not in him. 

“These things he said; and after that he said to 
them: Lazarus our friend sleepeth; but I go that I 
may awake him out of sleep. His disciples therefore 
said: Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. But Jesus 
spoke of his death; and they thought that he spoke 
of the repose of sleep. Then therefore Jesus said to 


90 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


them plainly: Lazarus is dead. And I am glad, 
for your sakes, that I was not there, that you may be- 
lieve: but let us go to him. Thomas therefore, who 
is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples: Let 
us also go, that we may die with him. 

“ Jesus therefore*came, and found that he had 
been four days already in the grave. (Now 
Bethania was near Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs 
off.) And many of the Jews were come to Martha 
and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. 
Martha therefore, as soon as she heard that Jesus was 
come, went to meet him: but Mary sat at home. 

‘“‘ Martha therefore said to Jesus: Lord, if thou 
hadst been here, my brother had not died. But now 
also I know that whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, 
God will give it thee. Jesus saith to her: Thy 
brother shall rise again. Martha saith to him: I 
know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at 
the last day. Jesus said to her: I am the resurrec- 
tion and the life: he that believeth in me, although he 
be dead, shall live: And every one that liveth, and 
believeth in me, shall not die for ever. Believest 
thou this? She saith to him: Yea, Lord, I have 
believed that thou art Christ the Son of the living 
God, who art come into this world. 

“And when she had said these things, she went, 
and called her sister Mary secretly, saying: The 
master is come and calleth for thee. She, as soon as 
she heard this, riseth quickly, and cometh to him: 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS 91 


for Jesus was not yet come into the town: but he was 
still in that place where Martha had met him. The 
Jews therefore, who were with her in the house, and 
comforted her, when they saw Mary that she rose up 
speedily and went out, followed her, saying: She 
goeth to the grave to weep there. 

“When Mary therefore was come where Jesus 
was, seeing him, she fell down at his feet, and saith 
to him: Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother 
had not died. Jesus, therefore, when he saw her 
weeping, and the Jews that were come with her, 
weeping, groaned in the spirit, and troubled himself, 
and said: Where have you laid him? ‘They say to 
him: Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. The 
Jews therefore said: Behold how he loved him. 
But some of them said: Could not he, that opened 
the eyes of the man born blind, have caused that this 
man should not die ? 

“‘ Jesus therefore again groaning in himself, com- 
eth to the sepulchre. Now it was a cave; and a 
stone was laid over it. Jesus saith: Take away 
the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, 
saith to him: Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he 
is now of four days. Jesus saith to her: Did 
not I say to thee, that if thou believe, thou shalt see 
the glory of God ? | 

“‘ They took therefore the stone away. And Jesus 
lifting up his eyes said: Father, I give thee thanks 
that thou hast heard me; and I knew that thou 


92 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


hearest me always; but because of the people who 
stand about have I said it, that they may believe 
that thou hast sent me. When he had said these 
things, he cried with a loud voice: Lazarus, come 
forth. And presently he that had been dead came 
forth, bound feet and hands with winding bands; and 
his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said 
to them: Loose him, and let him go. 

“‘ Many therefore of the Jews, who were come to 
Mary and Martha, and had seen the things that Jesus 
did, believed in him. But some of them went to the 
Pharisees, and told them the things that Jesus had 
done. ‘The chief priests therefore, and the Pharisees, 
gathered a council, and said: What do we, for this 
man doth many miracles? If we let him alone so, 
all will believe in him; and the Romans will come, 
and take away our place and nation. 

‘“* But one of them, named Caiphas, being the high 
priest that year, said to them: You know nothing. 
Neither do you consider that it is expedient for you 
that one man should die for the people, and that the 
whole nation perish not. And this he spoke not of 
himself: but being the high priest of that year, he 
prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation. And 
not only for the nation, but to gather together in one 
the children of God, that were dispersed. From that 
day therefore they devised to put him to death... . 

“But the chief priests thought to kill Lazarus 
also: Because many of the Jews, by reason of him 


eS ee a ee ee 


oe as > 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS 93 


went away, and believed in Jesus. And on the next 
day, a great multitude that was come to the festival 
day, when they had heard that Jesus was coming to 
Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went 
forth to meet him, and cried: Hosanna, blessed is 
he that cometh in the name of the Lord, the king 
OP Taraeliy 0.2% 

“The multitude therefore gave testimony, which 
was with him when he called Lazarus out of the 
grave, and raised him from the dead. For which 
reason also the people came to meet him, because 
they heard that he had done this miracle. The 
Pharisees therefore said among themselves: Do you 
see that we prevail nothing? behold, the whole world 
is gone after him.” 1 

So far the record. Is it a true statement of a 
fact? Let us see. JFirst of all it was recorded by 
contemporaries. ‘hat we have proved in the pre- 
ceding chapter. Secondly, there was no alteration in 
the record. That also we have established pre- 
viously. 

Now was it possible for men of the day, writing 
for men of the day, to report a public event of that 
magnitude otherwise than the facts justified? If the 
fact was not as recorded, would the large body of 
influential opponents of Jesus let it pass unrefuted ? 
They not only did not refute it, but they made no 
attempt to do so. 

1 John, cc. 1] and 12. 


94. CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


Moreover, they openly acknowledged it and its 
effect on the people. It threw them into consterna- 
tion. It drove them to despair. It had the very 
effect on them that it should have had if true. For 
seeing that they were dead set against Christ and 
not open to conviction, it drove them to criminal 
action. They plotted to kill Christ, and to kill 
Lazarus, the living evidence of Christ’s powers and 
claims. 

You may say, why did not the miracle convert 
them? And I may say, why does it not convert 
those in the same class today? ‘They, being preju- 
diced, read their own minds into all that Christ said 
and did, just as many do today, just as perhaps you 
are doing. That is why I postulated a judicial and 
not a prejudicial attitude of mind in this considera- 
tion. 

But the multitudes were converted by the miracle. 
They represented the common people and the com- 
mon sense of the nation. And there is no sense like 
common sense. You may mislead a crowd by clap- 
trap if you cater to their passions and weaknesses, 
but you cannot mislead a crowd if you propose what 
is counter to their wishes and material interests. 

Now Christ performed this miracle, as He said 
Himself in the text given above, that the people 
might know that He was sent by Almighty God. 
And His mission ran counter to the material ex- 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS — 95 


pectations of the people He was addressing. And 
they acclaimed Him and His mission, crying out 
with one multitudinous voice: ‘‘ Blessed is He that 
cometh in the name of the Lord!” 

Why then did the multitude crucify Him? The 
multitude did not. The chiefs of the people went in 
and out among the people, furiously storming and 
threatening, and finally, by their rabid agitating, in- 
furiated the crowd into demanding what was dictated 
to it. The Seribes and Pharisees were the vilest agi- 
tators that ever incensed a body of unwilling men to 
do what they did not want todo. And it was because 
of this that Jesus, when dying on the Cross, said: 
“* Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
do!” He had in mind the multitude. 

Now let us take up this miracle and look into it 
analytically, and see if it does not carry with it every 
evidence of truth that a reasonable mind can require. 
Lazarus was a prominent man of Jerusalem, as we 
learn from the fact that so many of his friends were 
assembled to mourn his death. Moreover, his 
prominence is made evident by his wealth, for the 
Gospel tells us that Mary, his sister, anointed Jesus 
with right spikenard of great price and the house was 
filled with the odor of the ointment. Its value was 
so great that Judas objected to it, saying: “* Why 
was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence 
and given to the poor?” As a penny in those days 


96 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


was equivalent in purchasing power to a dollar among 
us,” we may see that Lazarus was a man of conse- 
quence. 

Bethany was a suburb of Jerusalem, about a mile 
and a half out. It was evidently the dwelling place 
of the upper classes who wished to be away from the 
turmoil of the town. The subject of this miraculous 
event was therefore a man sufficiently prominent to 
draw the attention of the people at large to his case. 

He took sick and died. While he was dying, 
word was sent to Jesus. But He delayed His going 
to Bethany for several days. When He arrived, He 
found that Lazarus was dead and buried and that 
corruption of the body had set in. When He went 
to the grave and gave orders to take away the stone, 
Martha said to Him: “Lord, by this time he 
stinketh, for he is now dead four days.” But Jesus 
replied: ‘“ Did I not say to thee, that if thou be- 
lieve, thou shalt see the glory of God?” The fact 
of the death of Lazarus was therefore certain. 

The presence of the mourners is further evidence. 
Now these mourners were friends of the opponents 
of Jesus, as is clear from the fact that they immedi- 

2'To give us an idea of the value of a penny, we have the 
instance of the feeding of the five thousand men, where Philip 
says to our Lord that two hundred pennyworth of bread would 
not suffice. Certainly nowadays we should say that two hun- 
dred dollars worth of bread would hardly suffice. Also we 


have the instance of the parable where the wages were a penny 
a day. 


‘+. _——— ~~ s- 


Se ye ad 


) 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS 97 


ately went to the chief priests and Scribes and 
Pharisees and reported his resurrection. Conse- 
quently the miracle was performed in the presence of 
hostile witnesses. Unless it was in every respect the 
wonderful deed recorded, they would be the first to 
take exception to it. But instead of criticizing it, 
they are dumbfounded. Instead of denying it, 
they hasten to inform their influential friends 
about it. 

And these enemies of Jesus, when they heard it, 
evidently took every possible measure to ascertain the 
truth of the matter. It concerned them more than 
it does modern critics. The Gospel facts never had 
such a scrutiny from latter day scientific or sceptical 
minds as it had from the sceptics of Jerusalem. 

They were opposed to Jesus because His teaching 
showed the falsity of theirs. His candor disclosed 
their hypocrisy. His success meant their downfall. 
That is why they were enemies to Him. They 
sought to discredit Him in every possible way, in 
order to uphold their own position and power. 

For if Jesus was right, they were wrong. And to 
show how wrong they were, we need no reference to 
them by Jesus, but only the testimony of their own 
deeds. And one of their deeds was the very thing 
they planned to do now to offset this miracle of 
Christ. They planned to commit murder! To de- 
stroy evidence! Instead of being convinced by the 
miracle of Jesus, they became incensed by it, and 


98 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


determined on the death, not only of Lazarus, but 
also of Jesus. 

We sometimes wonder why these leaders of the 
Jews rejected Jesus. But being what they were, 
would we not be more surprised if they did not reject 
Him? “He who is not with Me is against Me,” 
declared our Lord. These haughty and sinful men 
would not be with Christ, so they set themselves 
against Him. 

It was the most natural thing in the world for 
them to do. If they would not be converted, they 
must necessarily be perverted. And perverted they 
were, even to the commission of the greatest crime in 
history. And they have many followers today. 

But to take up the miracle. When the witnesses 
of the resurrection of Lazarus reported the fact to 
the enemies of Jesus, these latter did not show as- 
tonishment at it. They drew no conclusion from it. 
Tt did not alter their perverse attitude. 

The witnesses reported every word and act of 
Jesus. They told how, before performing the 
miracle, Christ raised His eyes to heaven and ap- 
pealed to what He was about to do as the approval 
of His eternal Father on His mission,— “ That they 
may know that Thou hast sent Me.” 

He made it a test case of the truthfulness of His 
claims. He appealed to it before the entire assem- 
blage gathered there as a proof and confirmation that 
He was the true Son of God, come into this world to 


ee a 


Sa 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS 99 


give us eternal life,—‘‘ That they may know that 
Thou hast sent Me.” 

Then with the same power and authority by which 
in the beginning God called all things into existence 
out of nothing, He called the soul of Lazarus from 
eternity and remanded it back to its bodily habita- 
tion, making the corpse that was decaying into a 
living man who could hear and obey the voice of his 
Creator, and who came forth from the tomb when 
the words of the Master fell on his ears: ‘“‘ Lazarus, 
come forth.” He came forth, and Jesus gave to the 
bereaved sisters their living and loving brother. 

All that and more the witnesses told the fanatical 
opponents of Christ. Instead of making them enter 
into themselves and acknowledge the hand of God in 
this wondrous deed, they only became more hardened 
and more determined against Jesus. 

Do not say, gentle and broad-minded reader, that 
the poor men were not to blame. We can excuse a 
great deal, but when men deliberately plot a twofold 
murder, we cannot, no matter how liberal and gen- 
erous we wish to be, acquit them of downright 
malicious wickedness. They furnish the best proof 
themselves of their own depravity. They more than 
confirm by their own actions the condemnation pro- 
nounced against them by Jesus Christ Himself, the 
gentlest person that ever lived. Having received un- 
questionable evidence of the resurrection of Lazarus, 
they closed their eyes to it. They did not want evi- 


100 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


dence, they wanted His destruction. ‘They have 
many disciples nowadays. 

See their conduct on realizing this newest proof of 
Christ’s power and claims: ‘“ The chief priests 
therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and 
said: What do we, for this man doth many 
miracles? If we let him alone so, all will believe 
in him. . . . From that day therefore they devised 
to put him to death. . . . The chief priests thought 
to kill Lazarus also, because many of the Jews, by 
reason of him, went away, and believed in Jesus.” 

All this is taken verbatim from the record as given 
in the text above. Peruse it again, and see for 
yourself the confirmation of all that I have advanced. 
Never was there clearer evidence for a fact, never 
was there bolder defiance of all that the fact signified. 
Mark how these men did not question the miracle. 
They admitted it. That is more than some op- 
ponents of Christianity do today. And yet these 
enemies of our Lord had infinitely more reason for 
not admitting the miracle than modern sceptics. 

But with all their animus against Christ and all 
their means of discrediting His miracles, they were 
not able to do so. They even had recourse to blas- 
phemy to explain what they could not deny, and 
dared to assert that His deeds were the result of 
Satanic influence. That shows how hard they were 
driven. 

But while malice and prejudice were thus driving 


a Oe 


ee a ee 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS 101 


the chief priests and Scribes to desperate measures, 
common sense, the common sense of the great body 
of the common people, was impelling the multitude 
to recognize Christ as the Messiah. 

Accordingly, when the populace heard that Jesus 
was on His way from Bethany to Jerusalem, they 
went out in a body to meet Him and escort Him. 
They had such reverence for Him that they took the 
very garments from their backs and laid them along 
the road, that not even the feet of the animal that 
carried Him might be soiled. In the whole history 
of the world, there is no demonstration of reverence 
and honor comparable to that. 

And as He went along, the people cut down 
branches from the palm trees and waved them in 
triumph before the King of Isrel, singing mean- 
while: “ Hosanna, blessed is He that cometh in the 
name of the Lord.” If the miracle was not just as 
recorded, could it have produced that effect? And 
if that demonstration were not just as it is recorded, 
would the writers have dared to report it 2 

Remember the Evangelists were contemporaries. 
The Gospels were heard and read by the very people 
who were participators in the events narrated. They 
had every reason to object to what was narrated, as, 
for the most part, it recorded their own ingratitude 
and wrongdoing. But so true was it all that it never 
occurred to them to challenge its veracity. 

Now if these persons who were on the ground, and 


102 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


saw with their own eyes all that transpired, accepted 
this fact of the resurrection of Lazarus, what right 
have we, two thousand years removed from the occur- 
rence, to call it into question ? 

This Jewish multitude constituted the body of 
those who believed’ this fact. They demonstrate the 
third factor which we consider in weighing evidence, 
namely, the character of those who believed it. This 
Jewish multitude was an intelligent body of people, 
— it was not interested in believing. 

Rather, they and those who later accepted the 
Gospel narrative were antagonistic to Christ’s claims. 
But the clear evidence of facts convinced and con- 
verted them. No fact of history had as witnesses 
men harder to convince than had the miracle of the 
resurrection of Lazarus. 

In any court of law, if a case were presented and 
had half the evidence for it that this fact has, could 
there be any question about the verdict? No honest 
jury would hesitate a moment. Nothing but the 
rankest prejudice could prevent a unanimous verdict 
in favor of the case. 

I wish to lay special stress on the marvelous 
demonstration accorded to Jesus by the people gen- 
erally shortly after the resurrection of Lazarus. 
Either that demonstration took place or it did not. 
If it took place, it was the most unqualified confirma- 
tion of the truth of the miracle. No greater proof 
could be conceived or required. If that demonstra- 


a ee ee 


TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL FACTS 103 


tion did not take place, it is impossible to understand 
how the record could give it, since it would have met 
with the denial and condemnation of the very people 
who were concerned in it. 

Any denial of the Gospel record postulates such 
general stultification that no man of reasonable mind 
can entertain it for a moment. No history of the 
world bears better internal and external evidence of 
its truthfulness than does the Gospel record. TI in- 
vite you to consider any established fact of history 
and see if you can find it better substantiated than 
this fact I have dwelt upon from the Gospels, the 
resurrection of Lazarus. 

As that fact is demonstrated true, so every fact 
of the Gospels may be demonstrated. By ‘selecting 
a typical miraculous deed and showing its truth, the 
miraculous is proved. We considered the nature and 
character of the writers, the nature and character of 
the fact, and the nature and character of those who 
believed it. As a result, we saw that the evidence 
is as strong as a reasonable mind may demand. 

The truth of the miraculous is made certain. The 
evidence presented satisfies every judicial require- 
ment. The result is, that unless you admit the truth 
of this record, you must reject all documents of the 
past. You must say farewell to history and dis- 
trust all the annals of former days. 

To conclude, I quote again from M. de Broglie: 
“A concert of ancient testimony, a prompt diffusion, 


104 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


the similarity of the texts spread throughout the en- 
tire world, the conformity of the narratives with con- 
temporaneous chronology, constitute characteristics 
which in their turn entitle the Gospels to rank among 
the authentic monuments of the past. Criticism can 
exact no more. We know Jesus Christ through His 
disciples John and Matthew, and their companions 
Luke and Mark. Have we any other knowledge of 
Alexander or Augustus than that furnished us by 
their companions in arms or their courtiers ? 

“Because the Gospel facts pertain to faith, and 
carry with them a certain order of moral conse- 
quences, is that any reason for rejecting, in regard to 
them, all the ordinary rules of human judgment? 
We ask no other favor for the Gospel than that of 
being judged by the usual tests applied by science 
and erudition.” 


CHAPTER VI 


THE RESURRECTION 


E have seen that the Gospels are the 
most authentic and truthful record of 
the past possessed by mankind. From 

this record we are now going to consider a fact which 
Jesus Christ Himself pointed to as the chief sign 
of His divine mission. Before the fact occurred, 
Christ foretold it. It was not a fact governed by 
the fixed laws of nature, and therefore scientifically 
foreseeable, but a fact depending on the free and 
independent actions of a multitude of men, and there- 
fore foreseeable by divine knowledge only. 

We moderns often fancy that there were no 
sceptics in the old days. Some people think that 
criticism and scrutiny are peculiar to these latter 
times. But there were men “from Missouri” in 
the early days just as there are today, and they 
were just as wary until shown clearly the truth of a 
matter as our friends from the Middle West. 

In the time of Christ the gentlemen ‘from Mis- 
souri”’ were the Scribes and Pharisees, and they re- 
quired to be shown, and were very stubborn about it. 


On one occasion, the Pharisees openly asked Christ 
105 


106 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


for a sign, as a proof of His claims. He had been 
giving them signs right along, but they wanted more 
and greater. They tried to explain away His won- 
derful deeds, either by saying that it was not lawful 
to heal on the Sabbath, or else attributing the deeds 
to Satanic influence. But the deeds themselves they 
never did or could deny. They were all done in the 
open before large multitudes. 

On another occasion when Jesus plainly declared 
to them that He was God, they were so incensed that 
they took up stones to stone Him. When He said to 
them: ‘ Many good works have I shewed you from 
my Father, for which of those works do you stone 
Me?” they answered: ‘“ For a good work we stone 
thee not, but because thou, being a man, makest thy- 
self God.” ? 

You see they were not credulous, but critical, even 
to a hostile degree. You also see that they under- 
stood what He meant by His claims that He was 
really God. Nowadays, sceptics seem to think that 
Christ did not declare Himself to be truly God. But 
these ancient sceptics were in a better position than 
their modern brethren to know what He meant, and 
they knew He declared Himself to be God, and they 
accused Him of blasphemy because He, made Himself 
to be the true Son of God. 

Christ fully realized the wonderfulness of His 
claims, so He met their charge fairly and scientifi- 

1 John, 10. 


“ao 


ee Raye eta Fn SRE kg ee BS a en) sg see 2 BL 


_ 


THE RESURRECTION 107 


eally: ‘‘ Do you say that I blaspheme because I said 
I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my 
Father, believe me not, but if I do, though you will 
not believe me, believe the works, that you may know 
and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the 
Father.” ? 

Could modern sceptics take a bolder stand than 
those who confronted Christ? And could any 
modern scientific demonstrator meet an issue more 
satisfactorily than Christ did ? 

In ease there should be any lingering doubt that 
the persons of Christ’s time were as hard to convince 
as those of today, I give the following report of an 
occurrence by one who witnessed it. No modern in- 
vestigator, no sceptic, could be more exacting than 
those described herein: 

“ And Jesus passing by, saw a man, who was blind 
from his birth: And his disciples asked him: 
Rabbi, who hath sinned, this man, or his parents, 
that he should be born blind? Jesus answered: 
Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but 
that the works of God should be made manifest in 
him. I must work the works of him that sent me, 
whilst it is day: the night cometh, when no man can 
work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light 
of the world. 

‘“‘ When he had said these things, he spat on the 
ground, and made clay of the spittle, and spread the 

2 John, 10. 


108 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


clay upon his eyes, and said to him: Go, wash in 
the pool of Siloe, which is interpreted, Sent. He 
went therefore, and washed, and he came seeing. 

“The neighbors therefore, and they who had seen 
him before that he was a beggar, said: Is not this 
he that sat, and begged? Some said: This is he. 
But others said: No, but he is like him. But he 
said: Jamhe. They said therefore to him: How 
were thy eyes opened? He answered: That man 
that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my 
eyes, and said to me: Go to the pool of Siloe, and 
wash. And I went, I washed, and I see. And they 
said tohim: Whereishe? Hesaith: I know not. 

“They bring him that had been blind to the 
Pharisees. Now it was the sabbath when Jesus 
made the clay, and opened his eyes. Again there- 
fore the Pharisees asked him, how he had received 
his sight. But he said to them: He put clay upon 
my eyes, and I washed, and I see. 

‘Some therefore of the Pharisees said: This 
man is not of God, who keepeth not the sabbath. 
But others said: How ean a man that is a sinner 
do such miracles? And there was a division among 
them. They say therefore to the blind man again: 
What sayest thou of him that hath opened thy eyes? 
And he said: He is a prophet. 

“The Jews then did not believe concerning him, 
that he had been blind, and had received his sight, 
until they called the parents of him that had received 


THE RESURRECTION 109 


his sight, and asked them, saying: Is this your son, 
who you say was born blind? How then doth he 
now see? His parents answered them, and said: 
We know that this is our son, and that he was born 
blind: But how he now seeth, we know not; or who 
hath opened his eyes, we know not: ask himself: he 
is of age, let him speak for himself. 

“These things his parents said, because they 
feared the Jews: for the Jews had already agreed 
among themselves, that if any man should confess 
him to be Christ, he should be put out of the 
synagogue. Therefore did his parents say: He is 
of age, ask himself. 

“They therefore called the man again that had 
been blind, and said to him: Give glory to God. 
We know that this man is a sinner. He said there- 
fore to them: If he be a sinner, I know not: one 
thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. 
They said then tohim: What did hetothee? How 
did he open thy eyes ? 

“He answered them: I have told you already, 
and you have heard: why would you hear it again? 
will you also become his disciples? They reviled 
him therefore, and said: Be thou his disciple; but 
we are the disciples of Moses. We know that God 
spoke to Moses: but as to this man, we know not from 
whence he is. 

“The man answered, and said to them: Why, 
herein is a wonderful thing, that you know not from 


110 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


whence he is, and he hath opened my eyes. Now we 
know that God doth not hear sinners: but if a man 
be a server of God, and doth his will, him he 
heareth. From the beginning of the world it hath 
not been heard, that any man hath opened the eyes 
of one born blind.» Unless this man were of God, 
he could not do any thing. They answered, and 
said to him: Thou wast wholly born in sins, and 
dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. 

“ Jesus heard that they had cast him out: and 
when he had found him, he said to him: Dost thou 
believe in the Son of God? He answered, and said: 
Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And 
Jesus said to him: Thou hast both seen him; and 
it is he that talketh with thee. And he said: I be 
lieve, Lord. And falling down, he adored him.” ® 

The above is from an eye witness. It shows not 
only the malicious bad faith of the Jewish leaders, 
and their keen scrutiny of everything Christ did, but 
also that they did not and could not deny His 
miracles. 

IT say all this by way of introduction, because there 
are some people nowadays, superficially educated, 
who imagine that things could pass in those days 
which would never be allowed to pass now. They 
forget that the Gospel facts occurred in the era of 
Cesar, Augustus, Tacitus and Pliny. It was the age 
of ripe scholarship and keen criticism. It was the 

3 John, 9. 


THE RESURRECTION 111 


period when courts and sages and historians flour- 
ished. 

The Gospel facts do not belong at all to a hazy 
past wherein fact and fancy blend. It is very neces- 
sary to keep this in mind in the investigation of the 
Resurrection. I ask you, fair minded reader, to 
consider all the facts of the Resurrection as trans- 
piring before a body of citizens as keenly alive to 
things and their significance as any body of people 
in our country today. 

We know how the people were agitated over the 
Peace terms and the League of Nations recently. 
We saw how they examined the matter very minuicly 
and in all its bearings. Well, the Resurrection was 
a bigger affair than the League of Nations, and its 
consequences were infinitely greater to the people of 
that day and of all days. Consequently, we may be 
sure that they let nothing pass in regard to that great 
event except what was justified by the strongest 
evidence. 

If we are to enter into the right attitude of mind 
in this consideration, we must realize that the Resur- 
rection was a public matter, that it stirred a whole 
people, that these people were very keen, as shrewd 
as any on earth then or now, and that they had every 
reason in the world for opposing the Resurrection, 
seeing that it would prove their own undoing and 
their greatest condemnation. 

Yet despite all this, the first day on which the 


112 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


Apostle Peter proclaimed the Resurrection, in the 
very city where it occurred, three thousand people 
believed in it, and were baptized as followers of the 
Risen Christ, and gave their lives for their belief, 
for they were immediately set down for persecution 
and death.* Those three thousand men were not 
ignorant nor were they fools. 

The day after, five thousand more were added. 
And soon, doubtless, all the people would have be- 
heved, had not the leaders used the same vile means 
to prevent the Resurrection from being proclaimed 
that they had employed in bringing about the 
Crucifixion. These were the fanatical leaders of the 
people whom Jesus, the gentle Jesus, had branded 
as a brood of vipers. They had tried to kill 
Lazarus and had succeeded in killing Christ, and 
they now saw that His Resurrection would be their 
death-knell. So they determined to prevent its 
proclamation. 

Why did they not yield to its convincing proof ? 
They had committed themselves to an evil course, 
and, like most who do that, they pursued it to the 
end. ‘They are the most awful warning in all his- 
tory against acting in bad faith, for their end was 
destruction. 

But the fact remains that on the first day of the 
proclamation of the Resurrection, three thousand 
joined the Church of the Crucified. To bring over 

# Acts, 2. 


THE RESURRECTION 113 


such a multitude to the worship of One whom a short 
while before they had marched as a fool through the 
streets of their city and had led outside it to execu- 
tion as a criminal, is every bit as big a miracle as 
the Resurrection itself. Without the Resurrection, 
such a change in so many minds is incomprehensible. 

Now remember that all these data are taken from 
the most reliable documents of history. I am not 
stating myths or fables. The Roman tribunals and 
the Roman records witnessed to tuese events which 
oceurred under a Roman Governor. All this is but 
a prelude to the matter before us. It is given to put 
you at the start in the right frame of mind to con- 
sider the sign which Jesus Christ Himself gave as 
the chief credential of His divine mission. 

And the wonderful thing about this sign is that it 
was a prophecy fulfilled, as well as a most stupendous 
supernatural fact in itself. It therefore proves the 
divine mission of Christ in a twofold way, by 
prophecy and by miracle. 

That Jesus foretold His Resurrection we have 
from His very enemies. That is the best possible 
evidence, for we cannot suspect it. They went to the 
Roman governor, after the Roman soldiers had car- 
ried out the sentence of the Roman tribunal by put- 
ting Jesus to death, and asked this Roman executive 
to give them a guard to watch the tomb of the Cruci- 
fied. For, said they, this impostor declared that He 
would rise from the grave. 


114 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


I emphasize the character of the Roman officials 
and soldiers in this matter because I want to show 
that we have the same reason for putting reliance on 
what is recorded as we have for any event that 
occurred about the same time at Rome. We have no 
better testimony for believing the assassination of 
Cesar than we have for the death and Resurrection 
of Jesus Christ. 

In fact, the testimony is not as weighty in Cesar’s 
case, but we accept it because it costs us nothing. In 
Christ’s case it may cost us very much, no less, in 
fact, than the complete reform of our lives, for Jesus 
said: “The hour cometh wherein all that are in the 
graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and 
they that have done good things shall come forth unto 
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil 
unto the resurrection of judgment.” ® Belief in 
Christ’s resurrection has a direct effect on our lives. 

It is because the Resurrection is not only the 
credential of Christ’s divinity, but also the pledge of 
our own, that those who fear the judgment of the 
life hereafter try to shut their eyes to it. For that 
reason, having eyes they see not, as our Lord said 
of the Pharisees. But to a man who is willing to 
investigate the Resurrection as he would the assassi- 
nation of Cesar, I am sure it will stand out not only 
as well established, but even better. 

Jesus therefore foretold His Resurrection, and the 


5 John, 5. 28. 


THE RESURRECTION 115 


Jews knew it. His prophecy was: ‘“ They shall de- 
liver him to the Gentiles, to be mocked and scourged 
and crucified, and the third day he shall rise 
again.” ® In this prophecy He foretold exactly what 
was to happen. No one but God can foresee the free 
actions of men. It was by divine power, therefore, 
that He declared so exactly all that actually took 
place afterwards. 

In the above prophecy, He not only declares that 
He will rise again after crucifixion, but He states 
moreover all the chief events leading up to the Resur- 
rection. ‘‘ He shall be delivered to the Gentiles.” 
That happened. The Gentiles were the Romans, as 
everyone knows. By the Roman soldiers also He 
was mocked, scourged and crucified,— an exact ful- 
filment of the prophecy. ‘‘ And the third day he 
shall rise again.” To prevent that, the Jewish 
leaders went to the Roman governor Pilate, a his- 
toric Roman governor, Pontius Pilate,’ and asked for 
a guard to watch the grave. Pilate first required a 
certificate of Christ’s death, and then bade them 
guard His grave as they would. 

As a setting, therefore, for the Resurrection, we 
have the following incontrovertible facts: the record 
is the most authentic document of history; Christ 
foretold His Resurrection; the Jews knew He fore- 
told it; the opponents of Christ were as sceptical as 


6 Matt. 20. 19. 
7 Tacitus, Annals, Bk. 15, ch. 44. 


116 OREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


any today; the death of Christ was certified to the 
Roman governor; the Resurrection was proclaimed 
in the very city where it occurred and to the very 
people who were instrumental in Christ’s death; the 
first proclamation converted to belief in Christ three 
thousand of those -who had rejected and crucified 
Him; the whole people were in the way to conversion, 
but the Jewish leaders prevented it. 


No ease in law, no fact of history, is so well estab- 


lished as the Resurrection. I now proceed to take 
up the great event in detail and show conclusively 
that we must either accept the Resurrection, or else 
put no faith in any event of the past, and thus de- 
stroy history altogether. 

Christ realized better than His hearers or ourselves 
the tremendous claims He was making. Hence He 
furnished a proof which would justify those claims. 
Necessarily it had to be a most wonderful demon- 
stration. And so it was. We must therefore be 
prepared for it. If it were anything less, we might 
reject it as being insufficient. Christ therefore made 
it the most stupendous thing conceivable. 

His teaching opposed the evil inclinations of man’s 
heart and the pride of man’s intellect. To win the 
submission of man’s heart and mind to His exalted 
teaching of morality and to the sublime and incom- 
prehensible truths of the mysteries which He re 
vealed, required a credential so divine that there 


OS a en ee 


THE RESURRECTION 117 


could be no question about the divinity of His 
mission. 

The Gospel narrative of the Resurrection is as 
follows: 

“‘ And on the first day of the week very early in 
the morning they came to the sepulchre, bringing the 
spices which they had prepared: and they found the 
stone rolled back from the sepulchre. And going in, 
they found not the body of the Lord Jesus. 

“‘ And it came to pass, as they were astonished in 
their mind at this, behold two men stood by them in 
shining apparel. And as they were afraid and 
bowed down their countenance towards the ground, 
they said unto them: Why seek you the living with 
the dead¢ He is not here, but is risen: remember 
how he spoke unto you, when he was yet in Galilee, 
saying: The Son of Man must be delivered into the 
hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third 
day rise again. 

‘““And they remembered his words. And going 
back from the sepulchre they told all these things to 
the eleven, and to all the rest. . .. 

“Now whilst they were speaking these things, 
Jesus stood in the midst of them, and saith to them: 
Peace be to you: it is I, fear not. But they being 
troubled and frighted, supposed that they saw a 
spirit. And he said to them: Why are you trou- 
bled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? 


118 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle, 
and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you 
see me to have. 

“ And when he had said this, he shewed them 
his hands and feet. But while they yet believed not 
and wondered for joy, he said: Have you here any 
thing to eat? And they offered him a piece of a 
broiled fish, and a honey-comb. And when he had 
eaten before them, taking the remains he gave to 
them. 

“And he said to them: These are the words 
which I spoke to you while I was yet with you, that 
all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written 
in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the 
Psalms, concerning me. Then he opened their un- 
derstanding, that they might understand the Scrip- 
tures; and he said to them: Thus it is written, and 
thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again 
from the dead on the third day: and that penance 
and remission of sins should be preached in his name 
unto all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you 
are witnesses of these things. And I send the 
promise of my Father upon you; but stay you 
in the city, till you be endued with power from on 
high. 

“ And he led them out as far as Bethania: and 
lifting up his hands he blessed them. And it came 
to pass, whilst he blessed them, he departed from 
them, and was carried up to heaven. And they 


SS 


THE RESURRECTION 119 


adoring went back into Jerusalem with great joy.” ® 

That was the occurrence which wrought the 
greatest change ever known in the world. It was the 
event which made the world Christian. Let us take 
it up and examine it judicially. 

Nobody saw Christ rise from the dead, but hun- 
dreds saw Him alive after He was dead and buried. 
If you say it would be a stronger proof if people had 
actually seen Him rise from the tomb, I reply that 
hundreds actually saw Him ascend into heaven after 
He had shown Himself on numerous occasions and 
at various places for forty days. 

The question is not how He rose, or if someone 
saw Him rise, but did He rise? That He did we 
have the testimony of eye witnesses who saw Him 
alive and spoke to Him and touched Him with their 
very hands. And these were not credulous or willing 
witnesses. They had to be shown. 

Jesus, to show them that it was not their imagina- 
tion, and also that they were not beholding a phan- 
tom, actually partook of their food and made them 
touch His very body and feel His wounds. For six 
weeks He abode with them and was seen by thou- 
sands. During this time He enlightened His 
Apostles on the matters of faith, and gave them or- 
ders to preach it to the world. 

All very wonderful, you say, almost past belief. 
Yes, indeed, very wonderful, but not a bit more so 

8 Luke, 24. 


120 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


than what happened in consequence of it. For, as 
a consequence of the Resurrection, the Apostles, who 
were for the most part unlettered and ignorant men, 
went forth among Jews and Gentiles, the greatest 
preachers and the most successful missioners in the 
annals of mankind. - 

Not only that, but, from being cowardly men, they 
stood forth champions of the Resurrection, more fear- 
less and constant than any cause known to man has 
produced. Moreover, with nothing to aid them but 
with everything to hinder them, they accomplished 
by the Resurrection the greatest achievement in all 
history. 

We must not look at the Resurrection merely by 
itself, although even thus it stands as firmly as any 
fact recorded in history, but to see it aright we must 
consider it in its relation to the things which fol- 
lowed, which were in perfect harmony with it, which 
fully corroborated it, and which without the Resur- 
rection are more incomprehensible than the Resurrec- 
tion itself. 

We know that before the Resurrection the Apostles 
were just ordinary men of the peasant type. ‘This 
appears trom the testimony of the judges at the first 
trial of the Apostles: ‘*‘ Now seeing the constancy 
of Peter and John, understanding that they were 
illiterate and ignorant men, they wondered.” ® 
They were so cowardly that they all ran away when 

9 Acts, 4. 


THE RESURRECTION 121 


Jesus was sentenced to death. Yet after His death, 
they courted imprisonment, stripes and death. 
What caused that transformation? ‘The Resurrec- 
tion. 

They who before were in hiding for fear of the 
Jews, now went boldly among them and proclaimed 
themselves the followers of Christ. Even before 
their judges, they stood up bravely and calmly and 
delivered their message. They were sentenced to be 
scourged for preaching the Resurrection, but they re- 
joiced to receive stripes for Christ, and went on 
preaching the Resurrection. 

They were not fanatics. Read the Acts of the 
Apostles through and see if you can find anywhere 
in history more calm, better tempered, or more evenly 
balanced characters. But they were crusaders. 
They were the first crusaders, and never men gave 
their all as they did for the Cross of Christ and for 
Him who died on it. 

Read this incident, taken from Acts, chapter 5: 

“Then went the officer with the ministers and 
brought them without violence: for they feared the 
people, lest they should be stoned. And when they 
had brought them, they set them before the council: 
and the high priest asked them, saying: Command- 
ing we commanded you that you should not teach in 
this name: and behold you have filled Jerusalem with 
your doctrine: and you have a mind to bring the 
blood of this man upon us. 


122 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


“But Peter and the Apostles, answering said: 
We ought to obey God rather than men. The God 
of our fathers has raised up Jesus, whom you put to 
death, hanging him upon a tree. Him hath God ex- 
alted with his right hand to be prince and saviour, 
to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins; 
and we are witnesses of these things, and the Holy 
Ghost, whom God hath given to all that obey him. 

‘When they had heard these things, they were 
eut to the heart, and they thought to put them to 
death. But one of the council rising up, a Pharisee, 
named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law respected by 
all the people, commanded the man to be put forth a 
little while; and he said to them: Ye men of Israel, 
take heed to yourselves what you intend to do, as 
touching these men. 

“ For before these days rose up Theodas, affirming 
himself to be some body, to whom a number of men, 
about four hundred, joined themselves: who was 
slain: and all that believed him, were scattered, and 
brought to nothing. After this man rose up Judas 
of Galilee in the days of the enrolling, and drew 
away the people after him, he also perished: and all, 
even as many as consented to him, were dispersed. 

“ And now therefore I say to you, refrain from 
these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or 
this work be of men, it will come to naught: but if it 
be of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest perhaps you 


THE RESURRECTION 123 


be found even to fight against God. And they con- 
sented to him. 

“And ealling in the Apostles, after they had 
scourged them, they charged them that they should 
not speak at all in the name of Jesus, and they dis- 
missed them. And they indeed went from the 
presence of the council rejoicing, that they were ac- 
counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of 
Jesus. And every day they ceased not, in the 
temple, and from house to house, to teach and preach 
Christ Jesus.” 

Could men not absolutely sure of their mission act 
in that manner? What had they to gain? Nothing 
except persecution, punishment, exile, death. What 
had they to lose? Everything, except the truth. 
Now men do not adhere even to a good cause unless 
they have strong incentives. Why then should men 
adhere to this condemned cause ? 

The Jewish authorities condemned it. The Ro- 
man government condemned it. The passions of 
men condemned it. The pride of men condemned it. 
The convenience of men condemned it. The customs 
and traditions of men condemned it. Why should a 
few illiterate and ignorant men advocate it, be 
zealous for it, suffer for it, die for it? Because it 
was true. The Resurrection was a fact. 

And it was because the Resurrection was true that 
those few illiterates triumphed over the sages of 


124 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


Greece and Rome. It was because it was true that 
those few weaklings conquered the Roman Empire 
and made the world Christian. 

Now tell me, in all fairness, which is more in- 
comprehensible, the Resurrection, or the result of 
the Resurrection? Naturally we can comprehend 
neither, but supernaturally we comprehend both 
easily. 

If Christ is God, the Resurrection is the most 
natural thing in the world. If not, it is the most 
incomprehensible and impossible. If the Resurrec- 
tion is true, the result of the Resurrection is the most 
natural thing in the world. If not, it is the most 
unbelievable and impossible. But we are dealing 
with facts, stubborn things. The fact is, we have 
the result of the Resurrection. We cannot evade 
that. Neither can we evade the cause of that 
result. Therefore, the fact of the Resurrection 
stands. 

But have we really got that fact, the result of the 
Resurrection? Have we got indisputable evidence 
that in consequence of the Resurrection the religion 
of Christ rapidly conquered the pagan world? My 
dear reader, we have the very best evidence ever pre- 
sented for a fact. I shall give you presently such 
witnesses to this Result, that no matter what your 
animus, you cannot reject them. 

for fear you may distrust Christian testimony, I 
shall begin by calling to the witness stand the most 


ae 


THE RESURRECTION 125 


approved Roman writers, acknowledged everywhere 
as the highest type of pagan historians. ‘These 
writers are classics in the world of literature, and 
not being Christians, their evidence cannot be sus- 
pected of favoring the Christian cause. First we 
shall prove the rapid establishment of Christi- 
anity, and then that it was due mainly to the 
Resurrection. 

Our first witness is Tacitus. In the Annals, Book 
15, Chapter 44, he states that Christian religion 
originated in Judea while Pontius Pilate was Pro- 
curator there, under the Emperor Tiberius; that 
Christ suffered under the same Pilate; that, spite 
of this condemnation by Roman authority, the re- 
ligion of Christ had spread to such an extent that in 
Rome itself it numbered a vast multitude. 

They were so numerous in the time of Nero, 64 
a.D., that Tacitus says explicitly that “this religion 
overran not Judea alone, the country of its birth, 
but Rome itself.” By the testimony, therefore, of 
this non-Christian, we see what was the Result of the 
Resurrection even in far off pagan Rome. 

Pliny was the Roman governor of the province of 
Bithynia. In his letter to the Emperor Trajan, a 
few years after the death of the last Apostle, he 
states that there is a numerous and well organized 
body of Christians in that remote province; that the 
religion flourished not only in the cities, but also in 
the villages and the open country; that the pagan 


126 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


temples were in consequence deserted and the sacri- 
fices discontinued. 

So much for non-Christian evidence. When we 
come to Christian documents whose authenticity is 
certain, we are simply overwhelmed with testimony 
to the rapid extension of the religion of Christ. 

Justin, who wrote an Apology to the Roman Em- 
peror in behalf of the persecuted Christians, states 
in his book of Dialogues that the name of Jesus was 
known throughout the world.!!. Justin himself was 
martyred for the religion he defended so nobly by 
his writings.’ He was born 100 «.p., when the last 
Apostle was still living. He was a pagan until his 
thirtieth year, which makes his testimony all the 
more remarkable. 

It may not be out of place to give here his own 
reason for his conversion, as it throws a light on the 
effect of the Resurrection: 

“When I was a disciple of Plato, hearing the accu- 
sations made against the Christians, and seeing them 
intrepid in the face of death and of all that men 
fear, I said to myself that it was impossible that they 
should be living in evil and in the love of 
pleasure.” 12 

After his conversion, he said: “TI, too, expect to 
be persecuted and to be crucified.” 13 In the year 


10 Plin. Ep. Lib. X, 97. 1211 Apol. 18. 1. 
11 Dial. ec. Tryph. n. 117. 131 Apol. 3. 


THE RESURRECTION 127 


165 he was scourged and beheaded.t* We can be- 
lieve men of that type. 

Tertullian, who was born about a.p. 160, a pagan 
until middle age, addressing the Roman Emperor, 
says: ‘We are but of yesterday, and we fill all 
that is yours; your cities, your islands, your mili- 
tary posts; your boroughs, your council-chambers and 
your camps; your tribes, your corporations; the 
palace, the senate, the forum: your temples alone 
do we leave to you.”1® In his book against the 
Jews, he says that inhabitants of Africa, Spain and 
Gaul and Brittany, Sarmatia, Dacia, Germania and 
Seythia, had embraced Christianity."® This was 
written about the year 200. 

Is it any wonder that such a result drew from 
Renan himself the following remark: “In a hun- 
dred and fifty years the prophecy of Jesus was ac- 
complished. The grain of mustard seed which had 
become a tree began to cover the world.” *7 And 
what was it all? What, but the Result of the 
Resurrection! 

There is the Result, therefore, the great Effect. 
It had a Cause. Every effect must have a cause. 
That is logic. Opponents of Christianity have 
tried to assign every and any cause except the real 

14 Migne, P. G. VI, 1565. 

15 Apolog. ¢. 37. 


16 Adv. Jud. ec. 7. 
17 Brueckhart, Dub. Rev., Oct., 1880. 


128 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


cause, the Resurrection, but all in vain. The Effect 
is supernatural and so is the Cause. And that 
supernatural cause was the Resurrection. 

In order to clinch the case beyond all rebuttal, we 
shall now consider one or two points which will leave 
us absolutely no doubt that the rapid and widespread 
acceptance of Christianity was due to the divine 
character stamped on it by the Resurrection. 

The following facts should be kept in mind: that 
the men who preached Christianity were naturally 
altogether unfitted for so great an undertaking and 
achievement; that the religion itself was opposed to 
all the ways and interests of the world, and that even 
the greatest men could not secure its acceptance un- 
less they were divinely supported ; that its acceptance 
meant the greatest sacrifice to human nature ever re- 
corded in history; and that finally the period of its 
establishment was such as to be most radically op- 
posed to everything about it. 

It is simply impossible to assemble such an array 
of difficulties against any enterprise of man. If any 
one of these obstacles confronted a human under- 
taking, it would fail. All of them combined did 
not prevent the successful establishment of Chris- 
tianity. If that is not a Result which shows the 
truth of the Resurrection, and consequently of 
Christianity, there is no use reasoning about any- 
thing. 

When we consider how the great sages of the 


THE RESURRECTION 129 


world have at times endeavored to introduce among 
mankind some new way of life, and have failed, with 
all their learning and prestige and their appeal to 
the interests and passions of man, we can realize 
what the triumph of Christianity means, with its 
poor natural equipment and the tremendous odds 
against it. 

Other religions and cults have got a following by 
pandering to pride and passion, but Christianity op- 
posed pride and passion. Other religious systems 
have got a foothold by offering human inducements. 
Christianity, on the contrary, not only offered no 
human inducements, but frankly declared the 
opposite. 

Other creeds have thrived in this soil or that, 
among this nation or that, being sustained by na- 
tional, racial or martial glory. But Christianity was 
exiled from its birthplace, Judea, and as a foreigner 
and stranger and an enemy conquered the proudest 
and most powerful empire the world has known. 
Not confined to one nation or race, it spread over the 
known world, and made out of paganism our Chris- 
tian civilization. 

Now that victory talks. It is impossible not to 
hear its message. It declares in reason’s language 
that the establishment of the religion of Christ was 
not a human but a divine achievement. It is God 
talking to us, as much as His omnipotence speaks to 
us by the magnitude and order of the universe. The 


130 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


same divine power that made the world established 
this unworldly religion in the world. 

In order that this may be plainly manifest, I now 
take up in detail the establishment of this wonderful 
thing in the world. As it will present a new demon- 
stration of the truth of the Resurrection, I reserve it 
for the following chapter. 

But let me conclude this one by saying that never 
has any enterprise known to man presented such 
eredentials for acceptance as Christianity. And of 
these, the principal one is that to which Christ Him- 
self appealed when He was asked for a sign: 

“ Some of the Scribes and Pharisees answered him, 
saying: Master, we would see a sign from thee. 
Who answering, said to them: An evil,and adul- 
terous generation seeketh a sign: and a sign shall 
not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. 
For as Jonas was in the whale’s belly three days and 
three nights: so shall the Son of man be in the heart 
of the earth three days and three nights.” *° 

“The Son of man must be delivered into the hands 
of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day 
rise again.” 19 

Oh, yes, but all this implies miracles, you may say. 
It does. But why should not He who gave us the 
ether, by which the scientific miracle of wireless tele 
phony is accomplished, not also give us the Resurrec- 
tion? He gave us the ether and the other marvels 

18 Matt. 12. 38. 19 Luke, 24, 5. 


THE RESURRECTION 131 


of creation, which scientists gradually discover, in 
order to benefit our mortal life. And why should 
He not give us the Resurrection to benefit our eternal 
life ? 

If He must be listened to and obeyed as God, He 
must also do the things of God. If He tells us His 
is the way to eternal life, He must show us that it is 
by some divine manifestation. 

A miracle, therefore, is not only proper, but it is 
demanded by the very nature of the case. The 
Resurrection was that miracle. 


CHAPTER VII 
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 


N our last chapter we pointed out the truth of 
the Resurrection by showing that the rapid 
and widespread acceptance of Christianity was 

a consequence of it. As Christ appealed to the 
Resurrection as His chief credential, and as the es- 
tablishment of Christianity demonstrated the truth 
of the Resurrection, His divine mission is certain. 

We shall now proceed to show more in detail that 
the Apostles based their mission solely on the truth 
of the Resurrection; and that considering the ideas 
and morality promulgated by Christianity, and the 
terrible sacrifices and sufferings which its acceptance 
entailed, it never could have been established except 
by divine power. 

To bring about the worship of one crucified as a 
malefactor by order of a Roman governor was an im- 
possibility without divine intervention. ‘The wor- 
ship of the Crucified was established, as we know 
from Roman documents. The Resurrection was the 
divine intervention which made that establishment 
possible. 


We shall show in the first place that the Apostles 
132 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 183 


based their mission solely on the Resurrection. 
Afterwards, we shall demonstrate that without a 
miraculous sign like the Resurrection, it was utterly 
impossible for a religion inculcating the ideas and 
morals of Christianity, to gain a foothold in the 
world. 

A complete moral and social transformation, such 
as was effected after the death of Christ, requires an 
explanation. Every effect postulates a cause. 

The Apostles themselves will be our witnesses that 
they based their mission solely on the Resurrection. 
We begin with St. Paul. Weigh well his words, as 
he addresses the people of Corinth: 

‘Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gos- 
pel which I preached to you, which also you have 
received and wherein you stand, by which also you 
are saved, if you hold fast after what manner I 
preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. 

“For I delivered unto you first of all, that which 
I also received: how that Christ died for our sins 
according to the Scriptures: and that he was buried, 
and that he rose again the third day according to the 
Scriptures: and that he was seen by Cephas, and 
after that by the eleven: then was he seen by more 
than five hundred brethren at once: of whom many 
remain until this present, and some are fallen asleep. 
After that, he was seen by James, then by all the 
Apostles: and last of all, he was seen also by me, as 
by one born out of due time. 


134. CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


‘For I am the least of the Apostles, who am not 
worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted 
the church of God. But by the grace of God I am 
what I am; and his grace in me hath not been void, 
but I have laboured more abundantly than all they: 
yet not I, but the grace of God with me: for whether 
I, or they: so we preach, and so you have believed. 

“ Now if Christ be preached that he rose again 
from the dead, how do some among you say, that 
there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there 
be no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not 
risen again. And if Christ be not risen again, then 
is our preaching vain, and your faith ws also vai: 
yea, and we are found false witnesses of God: be- 
cause we have given testimony against God, that he 
hath raised up Christ, whom he hath not raised up, 
if the dead rise not again. 

“ For if the dead rise not again, neither is Christ 
risen again. And if Christ be not risen again, your 
faith is vain, for you are yet in your sins. Then 
they also, that are fallen asleep in Christ, are per- 
ished. Jf in this life only we have hope wn Christ, 
we are of all men most miserable. But now Christ 
is risen from the dead, the first-fruit of them that 
sleep.” * 

St. Paul was an exception to the Apostles gener- 
ally in this respect, that he was a man of learning. 

1I Cor. 15. 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 135 


Not only was he learned, but. he was also a genius. 
There are no loftier conceptions in all literature than 
those to be found in his writings. He was the 
strongest opponent of Christianity in the beginning, 
and its greatest champion eventually. 

Now this Apostle, in presenting his case to the 
Jews and pagans, does not touch upon philosophical 
or ethical reasons for the creed he advocates, but on 
the Resurrection only. He makes that the basis of 
everything. It is the motive for accepting the creed 
and the reason that the creed is true. 

Not like Plato or Socrates does he proceed, but 
like the Master Himself who spoke with power. 
Paul points to the Resurrection, and in view of that, 
sweeps aside every argument and obstacle. He has 
no other ground to standon. “If Christ be not risen 
again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith 
is also vain.” “If in this life only we have hope 
in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” 

Tf any of the preachers of Christianity were quali- 
fied to spread the Gospel by human means, it was 
Paul. Yet we find him insisting exclusively on the 
one great fact, the Resurrection. When the Jews, 
who were angered at the number of converts he was 
making, had him seized and taken before the Ro- 
man governor, Felix, on false charges, he rose up 
in the court of judgment and said to Felix: i baet 
these men themselves say if they found in me any 


186 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


iniquity, except it be for this one voice only that I 
eried, standing among them, concerning the resur- 
rection of the dead.” ? 

It is true that once St. Paul had gained converts 
to Christianity by the Resurrection, he appealed to 
them in various other ways to confirm them in the 
faith and its practice. All the other Apostles did 
likewise. But the basic argument for the faith was 
the Resurrection. 

St. Peter, the head of the Apostles, uses no other 
argument but that of the Resurrection: ‘‘ Ye men 
of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a 
man approved of God among you by miracles and 
wonders and signs, ... this same being delivered 
up, ... you, by the hands of wicked men, have 
erucified and slain. Whom God hath raised up. 
... Lhis Jesus hath God raised again, whereof all 
we are witnesses. . . . Therefore, let all the house 
of Israel know most certainly, that God hath made 
both Lord and Christ, this same Jesus whom you 
have crucified. ... They therefore that received 
his word were baptized; and there were added that 
day about three thousand souls.” 8 

That was the first sermon preached after the Resur- 
rection. It was in the very city of the Resurrection. 
Jts theme was the Resurrection. The first converts 
were the fruits of the Resurrection. 

A few days later, “ Peter and John went up into 

2 Acts, 24. 20. 83 Acts, 2. 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 187 


the temple, . . . and a certain man who was lame 
from his mother’s womb... asked to receive an 
alms... . But Peter said: Silver and gold I have 
none, but what I have I give thee: in the name of 
Jesus Christ of Nazareth arise and walk, ... and 
he leaping up stood and walked... and all the 
people saw him walking and praising God... . 
Peter said to the people: Ye men of Israel, why 
wonder ye at this, . . . as if by our power we had 
made this man to walk. ... The God of our fa- 
thers hath glorified his Son Jesus, whom you indeed 
delivered up, . . . whom God hath rassed from the 
dead, of which we are witnesses.” * 

The next day they were seized and brought be- 
fore the Jewish council. The high priest asked 
them : 

“By what power, or by what name, have you done 
this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said 
to them: Ye princes of the people, and ancients, 
hear: Be it known to you all, that by the name of 
our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you cruci- 
fied, whom God hath raised from the dead, even by 
him this man standeth here before you whole. 

“Now seeing the constancy of Peter and John, 
understanding that they were «literate and ignorant 
men, they wondered, saying: What shall we do to 
these men? for indeed a known miracle has been 
done by them, to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 

4 Acts, 3. 


1388 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


But that tt may be no further spread among the 
people, let us threaten them that they speak no more 
in this name. 

“And they charged them not to speak in the name 
of Jesus. But Peter and John answering, said: 
“Tf it be just in the sight of God to hear you rather 
than God, judge ye. For we can not but speak 
the things which we have seen and heard.” 5 

On that day five thousand more were added to the 
believers in the Resurrection. It was the Resurrec- 
tion that was foremost in their minds in all their 
preaching and acts. 

See how, in choosing a successor to Judas, they 
had the Resurrection before them. At the first as- 
semblage after the Resurrection, “Peter rising up 
said: The Scripture must be fulfilled concerning 
Judas, who was numbered with us, wherefore of 
these men who have companied with us all the time 
that the Lord Jesus came in and went out amongst 
us, beginning from the baptism of John, until the 
day wherein he was taken up from us, one of these 
must be made a witness with us of his resurrection.” ® 

Now, my dear reader, these acts and words are not 
taken from a book of fables, or myths, nor from the 
hazy past. The document which records them be- 
longs to the most enlightened period of pre-Christian 
civilization. It was written in the same era that 

5 Acts, 4. , 6 Acts, 1. 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 139 


Tacitus gave us his history and Cesar his Commen- 
taries, and its genuineness and truth are better estab- 
-lished than the works of either Tacitus or Cesar. 

The ripest scholarship of the world has scrutinized 
these documents and the verdict of the learned world 
is that, unless we accept them, we must reject his- 
tory altogether. I insist on this because there are 
some superficial minds who are loud and positive in 
proportion as their knowledge is limited. Such per- 
sons “ pooh pooh ” the sacred records because they re- 
port the miraculous. But they fail to see, as any 
sensible and educated man must, that such a result 
as the establishment of Christianity without the 
miraculous fact of the Resurrection is as great a 
miracle as any recorded in Scripture. 

From the words and deeds, therefore, of the very 
preachers of Christianity, we have demonstrated 
that they made the Resurrection the basis and the 
motive of faith in Jesus Christ. On the Resurrec- 
tion solely they relied for the acceptance of the new 
creed. The establishment, therefore, of Christianity 
is the result of the Resurrection. 

This will be further evident to any fair and judi- 
cial mind from the following considerations: 

First, the Apostles would be the biggest fools in 
history to devote their labors and their lives to preach- 
ing the Resurrection if they did not have certain 
evidence of it. What were they to gain by preaching 


140 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


the Resurrection? Not riches, not power, not com- 
fort, not fame, not anything that induces men to 
devote themselves to a cause. 

But, on the other hand, they preached the Resur- 
rection even though they were persecuted, exiled, im- 
prisoned, scourged, and finally put to death. It 
cost them everything that man values, yet they paid 
the price. It deprived them of everything that man 
yearns for, yet they gladly endured the deprivation. 
And why? Because the Resurrection was true. 
Let us hear them speak. 

“We would not have you ignorant, brethren, of 
our tribulation, that we were pressed out of meas- 
ure above our strength, so that we were weary even 
of life. But we had within ourselves the answer 
of death, that we should not trust in ourselves, but 
in God, who raiseth the dead.” 7 

“ Herod the King stretched forth his hands to af- 
flict some of the Chntet and he killed James, the 
brother of John, with the sword.” ® 

“Behold the men whom you put in prison are 
teaching the people. Then went the officer and hay- 
ing brought them set them before the council. And 
the high priest asked them, saying: Commanding 
we commanded you that you should not teach in this 
name; and behold you have filled Jerusalem with 
your doctrine. But Peter and the Apostles answer- 
ing said: We ought to obey God rather than men, 

7 II Cor. 1. 8. 8 Acts, 12. 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 141 


The God of our fathers hath ratsed up Jesus, whom 
you put to death, and we are witnesses of these 
things. When they had heard these things, they 
thought to put them to death. After they had 
scourged them, they charged them that they should 
not speak at all in the name of Jesus; and they 
dismissed them. And they indeed went from the 
presence of the council, rejoicing that they were 
accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name 
of Jesus.” ® 

Were they fanatics, men blinded by their own in- 
fatuation? Fanatics do not. speak with calmness 
and serenity. Fanatics do not establish an organiza- 
tion that endures throughout the ages, and numbers 
among its adherents the wisest and best men that 
have ever lived. Fanatics do not agree one with an- 
other, and preach the very same doctrine constantly 
and in various parts of the world. Fanatics preach 
themselves, their own ideas, their own vain imagin- 
ings. 

But these men never preached themselves. Their 
own personality is ever in the background. How 
came it that without any human inducement they all 
started to preach the same theme at the same time 
and in thesame way? Because they were all preach- 
ing an objective truth, which was one and the same, 
the Resurrection. A few men may be fanatics and 
deluded, but a band of men, at the same time, and 

9 Acts, 5. 


142 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


on the same subject, and in a tranquil, firm, con- 
stant and patient manner,— never ! 

“ Apprehending Paul and Silas, they brought them 
to the rulers and said: These men disturb our city, 
being Jews, and preach a fashion which it is not 
lawful for us to receive, being Romans. And the 
magistrates rending off their garments commanded 
them to be beaten with rods, and when they had laid 
many stripes upon them, they cast them into 
prison.” 1° 

That was the treatment they received, and it was 
that way everywhere and always with the Apostles, 
and it continued that way until a violent death 
ended their labors and sufferings. What fools they 
were unless they had evidence of the Resurrection! 

Now mark this particular thing. There is a dif- 
ference between the stubborn and fanatical man who 
is insane, or infatuated with his own notions, and 
the man who perseveringly suffers in behalf of an 
idea or cause that is not his own, nor to his advan- 
tage. All the freaks and extremists of history have 
been persons carried away by their own importance 
or advantage. They suffered and sometimes died for 
their own notions. That, at its best, is individual 
sincerity. Jt does not indicate any objective truth. 
It is a mere subjective condition. Such men we 
pity, or, if they threaten detriment to the community, 

10 Acts, 16. 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 143 


we repress them. In that case, a person is a martyr 
to himself, to his own ideas. 

Now that was not the case with the Apostles. 
They were martyrs in the true sense. They were 
witnesses not to their own ideas but to Christ’s. A 
martyr means a witness. The Apostles were wit- 
nesses to something that was not of their own devising 
or creation, but to an objective fact, the Resurrec- 
tion, and to the doctrine of the Risen Christ. They 
were no more interested in it than anybody else, un- 
less it were a true objective reality. In that case, 
the Resurrection was not merely an isolated fact, 
but a sign and a credential of Christ and His mis- 
sion. As such they proclaimed it. 

Christ had said: ‘‘ He who confesses me before 
men, him will I confess before my Father in 
heaven; ” “He who loses his life for my sake shall 
find it;”’ “‘ What doth it profit a man if he gain the 
whole world and lose his soul;” ‘“ I am the Resur- 
rection and the Life, he who believeth in me shall 
not die forever.” 

The Resurrection made all that and thousands 
of other teachings of Christ absolutely true. The 
Resurrection caused the Apostles to base their lives 
on the doctrine of Christ. The Resurrection proves 
that the Apostles were not fools, but the wisest of 
men. For their whole enterprise was founded on 
His words who rose from the dead and who was con- 


/ 


144 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


sequently what He claimed to be, the true Son of 
God. 

That explains the life and labors and sufferings 
of the Apostles. That enables us to understand this 
sublime ejaculation of Paul: “ Who then shall sep- 
arate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation 2 
or distress? or famine? or nakedness, or danger? or 
persecution? or the sword? ... But in all these 
things we overcome, because of him that hath loved 
us. or I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor 
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, 
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to 
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord.” 14 

And none of these things did separate the disciple 
from the Master. The servant did not look for bet- 
ter treatment than his Lord had. And so he was | 


able at the end to say cordially and triumphantly: 


‘For I am even now ready to be sacrificed, and the 
time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a 
good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept 
the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a 
crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will 
render to me in that day, and not only to me, but 
to them also that love His coming.” 12 

That was the statement of a strong, brave, bal- 
anced man in the presence of death. It is the utter- 

11 Rom. 8. 12 JT Tim. 4. 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 145 


ance not only of subjective sincerity, but of objec- 
tive truth. What he said, before he went forth from 
his prison to be killed for Christ, all the other 
Apostles said under the same or similar circum- 
stances. 

If the Resurrection were not true, the twelve san- 
est, most upright, most constant and most consistent 
men in the world were fools. But consistency, up- 
rightness and sanity do not spring from a disordered 
imagination. The Resurrection was therefore a real- 
ity. 

I now proceed to show that, even if the Apostles 
wished to promulgate the Resurrection as the chief 
credential of Christianity, they could not have done 
so if it were not true. This is the second considera- 
tion I present to corroborate the foregoing thesis. 

Before I give this demonstration, I wish to say 
that the proofs already given, or any one of them, are 
conclusive evidence for the truth of the Resurrection, 
but when we take the various proofs cumulatively 
they present overwhelming evidence. But because 
there are various viewpoints on any subject, this 
further evidence which will be presented is given, 
in order to meet every phase of mind and every form 
of objection. 

Hence we say, in the second place, the Apostles 
could not make the Resurrection the basis of the 
establishment of Christianity if they wished to, un- 
less the Resurrection were true. or, to begin with, 


146 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


they would have to concur in the fraud they were to 
proclaim, and agree to openly announce it in the 
presence of the magistrates and people of Jerusalem, 
and to suffer opposition, ignominy, exile, stripes and 
death for a lie, the establishment of which, even if 
they succeeded, would bring them nothing that men 
care for, but rather everything that men ordinarily 
shrink from. Could the perpetration of an infamous 
fraud induce normal men to lose everything and 
suffer everything, even death ? 

And even if it could, their attempt to propagate 
it would never have made any headway. ‘Truth suc- 
ceeds in spite of obstacles and persecution. Fraud 
cannot succeed permanently, even with every human 
contrivance and under the most favorable circum- 
stances. In the case of the Resurrection, all the cir- 
cumstances were most unfavorable to fraud. There- 
fore the Apostles could not have propagated a fraudu- 
lent Resurrection even if they wished. 

Tf the Resurrection were a fraud, it would have 
been necessary for the chief plotters to deceive the 
many disciples who declared they had seen the Risen 
Saviour. At one time as many as five hundred were 
assembled when Jesus stood in their midst. Now, 
unless they really beheld the Risen Lord, they would 
not have so announced the fact, and in doing so, 
suffer all the persecution which the chief plotters 
incurred. The fact of the Resurrection was as 
astounding to them as itis tous. ‘They were as scep- 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 147 


tical as any of us. Yet in consequence of what they 
beheld with their own eyes, they became believers 
in the religion of Christ. 

Tt was simply impossible for the Apostles to work 
off a fraud on so many witnesses, especially when 
the consequences of the fraud entailed unheard of 
sacrifices. Therefore, even if they wished, the Apos- 
tles could not proclaim the Resurrection unless it were 
true. 

Moreover, if the Resurrection were not true, it 
would be necessary to impose a fraud on people most 
hostile to its reception. The Jews were the bitter- 
est enemies of Christ, and the pagans were most an- 
tagonistic to His whole mission. Yet these were the 
people whom the poor, simple fishermen of Galilee 
were to make their dupes! There is nothing more 
preposterous in all history. 

The Jew did not give up his tradition, nor did 
the pagan give up his idolatry and vices, without a 
strugele. Yet on the first sermon on the Resurrec- 
tion, three thousand Jews became converts. And 
after a short period, the pagan converts were so many 
in all parts of the Roman Empire that Tertullian 
could say in his Apology to the Emperor: “If we 
were to withdraw from you, the Empire would be a 
desert.”’ 18 

And Pliny: “ The contagion of Christian super- 
stition is not confined to the cities, it has invaded the 

13 Apolog. ¢. 37. 


148 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


villages and the country, and has taken possession 
of persons of every age, rank and sex. Our temples 
are almost entirely abandoned, and the religious cere- 
monies neglected.” 14 A fraud never did that. 

The Apostle sums up the matter when he says: 
‘We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed 
a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness, 
but unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, 
Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and 
the weakness of God is stronger than men. . . . The 
foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he 
may confound the wise; and the weak things of the 
world hath God chosen, that he may confound the 
strong.” 7° 

To suppose for a moment that the Apostles could 
establish a religion based on the Resurrection with- 
out giving the clearest proof of the Resurrection, 
makes a bigger demand on our credulity than the 
Resurrection itself. For the religion based on the 
Resurrection obliged men to place their lives on a 
supernatural foundation. 

Now why should men build on such a foundation 
unless it was certain? One man might be deceived, 
or ten men, but not millions of men. ‘Ten millions 
might be deceived if there was something in the new 
religion which flattered human pride or passion. 

But it was just the reverse. The doctrine of the 

14 Epis. no. 97. 15 I Cor. 1. 23. 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 149 


Christian faith obliged the intellect to bow down 
before incomprehensible truths and the passions to 
be controlled by the loftiest morality. And besides, 
Christianity entailed in most cases the greatest suf- 
ferings and sacrifices ever demanded of mankind. 
Unless, therefore, the Resurrection was clearly dem- 
onstrated to the first believers and confirmed by 
miracles, the religion of Christ never would have 
gained adherents. 

The Resurrection was the sign pointed out by 
Christ as the credential of His divine mission. The 
Resurrection was the credential presented by the 
Apostles in preaching the doctrine of Christ. As 
Christianity was actually established, and that by 
reason of the Resurrection, it follows logically that, 
as the establishment of Christianity is a fact beyond 
human power to accomplish, so is the Resurrection 
a fact, divine and true. 

In order to show still more evidently the miracu- 
lousness of the establishment of Christianity, we shall 
consider briefly what it entailed on its followers. 
This consideration, by showing the utter impossibil- 
ity of establishing Christianity by human means will 
confrm the truth of the Resurrection. A divine 
effect demands a divine cause. It will be made evi- 
dent from the following facts that the conversion of 
the Roman Empire was a divine effect, consequently 
its cause, the Resurrection, was divine, and true. 

To become a Christian in the Roman Empire 


150 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


meant a complete reversal of all one’s national, so- 
cial and personal ideas, customs and morals. No 
such complete reversal has occurred in the history 
of mankind before or since. If this change were 
brought about by sages or by powerful rulers or by 
the force of arms or by worldly inducements, it would 
still be the most’ wonderful change ever recorded 
among men. Indeed, with all the above named agen- 
cies, it could not be done. ‘Time and again, superior 
and more powerful governments have endeavored to 
change the national character of a weaker people, 
but without success. 

Now Christianity, with no such agencies whatso- 
ever, not only changed a nation and its most funda- 
mental characteristics, but changed an empire, the 
greatest the world has known, and transformed it 
radically and permanently. That was using the 
weak things of this world to confound the strong. 
It was God’s work, not man’s. Man was but the in- 
strument. This will appear presently. 

There was, humanly speaking, no proportion be- 
tween the marvelous effect and the insignificant nat- 
ural cause. On the one hand was the greatest em- 
pire in the world, on the other, a band of twelve sim- 
ple men, who were rejected by their own people. 
Yet these rejected ones, of a despised and subject 
race, accomplished a fundamental alteration in the 
most powerful empire of history. 

But in saying this, we have adverted to the least 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 151 


wonderful item of this marvelous event. It was not 
so much the disparity of cause and effect that sur- 
passes understanding, as the nature of the revolution 
brought about. In order to understand the impos- 
sibility, from a human standpoint, of effecting this 
transformation, let us consider the following points: 
the ideas which the pagan intellect had to accept; 
the manner of life the pagan had to adopt; and the 
price the pagan had to pay for his conversion. 

As regards the first point, the ideas which Chris- 
tianity imposed on the pagan world, we know that in 
the time of Christ the pagans believed in a multi- 
plicity of gods. Government and religion were 
firmly based on that belief. Christianity taught that 
there was but one God, and that all the deities the 
pagans worshipped were nothing but fabrications. 
That was a terrible blow to the haughty pagan mind. 

Christianity taught an incomprehensible mystery 
in regard to the one God, that there were three Per- 
sons in the Deity. For this they gave no demon- 
stration, merely asserting it on the word of Christ, 
and offering no proof but the Resurrection. Chris- 
tianity taught that God made all things out of noth- 
ing, by a creative act, Himself being eternal, self- 
existing, omnipotent and omniscient. That went di- 
rectly against all the pagan notions of the origin of 
the world. It flatly contradicted all their cherished 
ideas. 

Christianity taught that God truly became man, 


152 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


that Christ was God and man, the only Son of the 
eternal Father. And yet this God-man was crucified 
as an evil-doer by His own people. The pagans were 
thus required to worship one condemned as a crim- 
inal by their own tribunal. 

Christianity taught that the God-man was truly 
present in the Eucharist, and that He was given as 
food for the spiritual nourishment of His followers, 
that they ate His body and drank His blood in re- 
ceiving holy Communion. What an inconceivable 
idea for the pagan intellect! 

I might continue to name dogmas of the religion 
of Christ which were to the Jews a stumbling-block 
and to the pagans foolishness. But I have given 
enough to show that inherently Christianity pre- 
sented to the pagan mind doctrines which no human 
power could succeed in getting accepted. But these 
dogmas were accepted! How? It was the Resur- 
rection. 

That was the sign Christ pointed to as His great 
credential. That was the proof given by the Apos- 
tles for their claims. The pagans made sure of the 
truth of the Resurrection, and then they knew that 
what Christ taught was true. 

Next, as regards the morality inculcated by Chris- 
tianity, it will be seen that the difficulty here was 
just as great as in the case of dogma. Yor the pagan 
was a law unto himself. He satisfied his passions 
as he liked and made his vices respectable by fashion- 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 153 


ing a god unto them and worshipping it. That was 
the charm of idolatry. 

We can form no idea of the state of pagan morals 
at the time of Christ. The very worst blots on mod- 
ern civilization, the things which, if done at all, are 
done secretly and of which people are ashamed, were 
done openly and glorified by the pagans. There were 
exceptions here and there, but I am speaking, not of 
isolated cases, but of the general tone of pagan so- 
ciety, high and low. 

Vice was degrading and general. Temples and 
shrines and statues were erected to deities of im- 
morality. The rites observed and the deeds per- 
formed in this worship would shock even vulgar 
people today. It was this cesspool of voluptuous- 
ness that the stern morality of Jesus Christ was to 
change into the pure fountains of living waters. 
The attitude of the pagan mind to the morality of 
Christ was as antagonistic as anything that it is pos- 
sible for the human mind to conceive of. 

Yet Christian morality replaced pagan vice. 
What did it? No power of man. Socrates and 
Plato and other sages had endeavored to effect a 
change in the ways of mankind, but they got only 
a small following and that in academic fashion. But 
Christianity got a world wide following, and that in 
the practical lives of its adherents. 

Imagine what a barrier to the acceptance of Chris- 
tianity among that people was such moral teaching 


154 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


as the following: ‘“‘ You have heard that it was said 
to them of old, thou shalt not commit adultery. But 
I say to you that whosoever shall look on woman to 
lust after her hath already committed adultery with 
her in his heart.” 16; “ Blessed are the clean of heart, 
for they shall see God.” 17 

The teaching of Christ went to the very root of the 
matter. It meant a radical change in the entire pa- 
gan system. Yet that change was effected. The 
truth of the Resurrection was so manifest that it put 
the divine seal on the mission of Christ, clothing Him 
with the power of Almighty God, making His words 
absolutely true, and sanctioning all His teaching. 

The pagans bowed down their intellect to the truths 
preached by Christ, and conformed their lives to 
the morals He proclaimed, because they knew from 
the Resurrection that He was God legislating for 
them. Otherwise, how could they have accepted a 
religion which went directly against all their re- 
ceived notions ? 

We know how proud and cruel and unjust and ar- 
bitrary were these men of Greece and Rome. In 
Attica the official census made by Demetrius Pha- 
lereus gave the population as 60,000. Of these, 
40,000 were slaves. At the time of Christ, the ma- 
jority of mankind were slaves. The great Aristotle 
taught that “nature requires that there be slaves.” 
Cato the philosopher shows us that the slave was re- 

16 Matt. 5. 27. 17 Matt. 5. 8. 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 155 


garded as a mere commodity: “A wise husband- 
man must get rid of all implements no longer in use, 
worn out ploughs, old horses, aged slaves.” 

When a slave got sick, or maimed, or old, he was 
thrown out to starve and die, or else put to death. 
To lessen the expense of the animals kept for the 
circus, Caligula ordered them to be fed with slaves. 
The Romans had an expression to show the legal 
status of the slave: “Slaves are not entitled to 
leisure, they have no standing before the law, they 
do not count as persons.” 

With such a cruel and unjust world, what chance 
had the religion of the meek and humble Christ, Him- 
self scourged as a slave and crucified as a malefactor 
by order of a Roman governor! Unless the Resur- 
rection confirmed His teaching as divine, could such 
doctrine as the following ever gain admittance into 
pagan society and finally dominate it¢ These pre- 
cepts are the very antithesis of everything pagan: 

“ All things therefore whatsoever you would that 
men should do to you, do you also to them.” ** 

“You have heard that it hath been said, thou 
shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But 
I say to you: Love your enemies, do good to them 
that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and 
calumniate you, that you may be the children of 
your Father who is in heaven.” 1° 

“Tf any man will come after me, let him deny 

18 Matt. 7. 12. 19 Matt. 5. 43. 


156 OREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


himself and take up his cross and follow me. For 
he that will save his life shall lose it, and he that shall 
lose his life for my sake, shall find it.” 2° 

Only God could talk that way. Only God could 
make such demands and guarantee such recompense. 
And what made the pagans listen to His message and 
lay down their lives for Him? It was because the 
Resurrection, to which He pointed as the divine 
sign confirming His words, was made manifest to 
them. 

The Greeks and Romans had greater reason to 
question the Resurrection than we have. They ques- 
tioned it, you may be sure, with the result that they 
believed it, and believed in Christ, the Son of God, 
and gave their lives in testimony of their faith. 

This leads me to the consideration of the third 
factor in regard to the establishment of Christianity. 
For the pagan had not only to accept mysteries be- 
yond his understanding, and morality which revolu- 
tionized his manner of living, but, in most cases dur- 
ing the first centuries, he had to pay the price of im- 
prisonment, torture and death for his new religion. 
He thus had to lower his pride of intellect and curb 
his lust of pleasure, and, at the same time, pay for 
it the greatest price that a man can give. Now men 
do not bind themselves thus and pay the supreme 
price for their bonds except for good cause. The 
good cause was the Resurrection, for in its truth they 

20 Matt. 16. 24. 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 157 


realized that the bonds were to make them free with 
the freedom of the children of God. 

And now for a brief statement of the unparalleled 
sufferings which the early pagan converts endured for 
embracing the religion founded on the Resurrection. 

The persecution of the Christians was both gen- 
eral and bloody. From Nero to Constantine, mil- 
lions of the best subjects of the Roman world were 
scourged, imprisoned, exiled, devoured by beasts, 
burned alive and beheaded for Christ. Ten distinct 
general persecutions were inaugurated by the Roman 
emperors. Diocletian took such severe measures for 
the repression of Christianity that he had a medal 
struck in commemoration of what he supposed was 
the end of that religion. This is the. inscription : 
“Nomine christianorum deleto” (The Christians 
are no more). It is estimated that from nine to 
eleven millions of Christians were tortured during 
these ten persecutions. With what result? “The 
blood of martyrs became the seed of Christians.” 
The Roman Empire became Christian. 

Nor can it be said that this fortitude was the re- 
sult of a wave of fanaticism. First of all, fanati- 
cism does not last that long, and secondly, fanaticism 
must be nourished by frenzy. But there was none 
of the frenzy of fanaticism about the Christian mar- 
tyrs. hey were calm, patient, forgiving, even pray- 
ing for their torturers. They realized the great. sac- 
rifice they were making. 


158 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


There were heart-breaking separations of husbands 
from wives, and daughters from parents, and aged 
fathers and mothers from beloved children. But it 
was borne patiently and encouragingly for Christ. 
Mothers exhorted their sons to courage before their 
tormentors, and children chanted hymns of praise 
when ordered to be devoured by wild beasts, ad- 
vancing to torture as recollectedly and cheerfully as 
if going to a festival. 

There was no rancor, no malice, no excitement, no 
emotionalism, about the martyrs. A lofty exhilara- 
tion based on the certainty of the Resurrection and of 
their own resurrection was their chief characteristic. 
As Stephen, the first martyr, prayed for those who 
were stoning him to death, so the millions of Chris- 
tian martyrs prayed for those who turned the wild 
beasts loose on them, or put the torch to their pitch 


covered bodies, or tied them up in sacks with ser- 


pents to drown in the sea, or cut off their hands and — 
feet, or had them tied to the heels of horses driven 
furiously. No manner of torture known to the bru- 
tality of that brutal age was spared the Christians. 
Yet they endured patiently and gladly for the name 
of Christ. 

This is all so well known that it is not necessary 
to go into details. Any Church History of the pe 
riod will give countless, well authenticated cases. 
Seneca, the pagan classic writer, states that the mar- 
tyrs endured all that human barbarity could invent. 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 159 


Tacitus, also, says that the tortures inflicted on the 
Christians caused the most exquisite pains. 

The absence of frenzy is the most notable thing 
about the Christian martyrs. They were gentle and 
calm amidst indescribable torments. Not only men, 
but little children and weak women showed the forti- 
tude of heroes. This very calmness and the forgiv- 
ing spirit of the martyrs caused innumerable conver- 
sions. The common sense of the spectators caused 
them to see that there was something more than hu- 
man in the religion which inspired such fortitude, 
patience, prayerfulness and forgiveness. 

As the thief on the cross was converted by the mar- 
velous gentleness and patience of Jesus, so were 
many by-standers brought to the religion of the Cru- 
ecified by the calmness and resignation of His follow- 
ers during their passion. Thus Tertullian writes: 
‘““ The more they slay us, the more we multiply, the 
blood of the martyrs is the seed of new Christians.” 

The peace and serenity which the martyrs dis- 
played often caused the conversion of their very exe- 
cutioners and judges. I wish to bring this point out 
strongly, for it shows that what impelled the early 
Christians to suffer so heroically for Christ was not 
fanaticism, but a real, substantial and most firm con- 
viction of the truth of the Resurrection. 

They accepted that credential for the truth of 
Christ’s divine mission, and consequently realized 
that, in losing their life for His sake, they were find- 


160 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


ing it anew in His kingdom. There is no other pos- 
sible explanation for the constancy, fortitude, peace- 
fulness and serenity of the millions of martyrs who 
suffered excruciatingly during two hundred years 
and in all parts of the Roman world. 

Moral strength of such a nature does not belong 
to humanity. We might find it here and there, at 
certain periods, and for a short while, but to find it 
everywhere, among every class and condition of man- 
kind, and for hundreds of years, amidst the most 
prolonged and exquisite tortures, means that God 
sustained them, and that consequently their faith 
was divine. 

Not one of these millions of martyrs was obliged 
to suffer. It was voluntary on their part. One 
word from them would have prevented or stopped 
their martyrdom. They merely had to say that they 
renounced Christ. But the truth of the Resurrec- 
tion was so manifest to them that they preferred to 
lay down their lives for Christ rather than to retain 
life by rejecting Him. 

Under the Emperors Diocletian and Maximus, the 
number of martyrs according to tradition was two 
million! They issued an edict “to tear down the 
churches to the foundations and to destroy the Sacred 
Scriptures by fire, to imprison Bishops, priests and 
deacons and to compel them by every torture to re- 
nounce Christianity; to subject the laity to every 
manner of torture in order to force them to sacrifice 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 161 


to the pagan deities.** In one case the whole popu- 
lation of a town was massacred because they declared 
themselves Christians.?? It was after these drastic 
measures that the Emperors had the medal struck 
stating that Christianity was at last destroyed. 
But Christianity was not destroyed. The em- 
perors and their pagan empire passed away, but 
Christianity not only did not pass away, but remained 
and flourished, and spite of every obstacle and oppo- 
sition, it spread over the whole world, until today 
we see it everywhere. It thus fulfilled the prophecy 
of its Founder, and this fulfillment in its turn be- 
comes one of the greatest credentials of Christianity. 
Unless God were with His Church, it had never 
survived the persecutions from without and the here- 
sies from within. But Christ guaranteed His pres- 
ence unto His Church, and that presence explains its 
life, “ All power is given to me in heaven and on 
earth; going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptiz- 
ing them in the name of the Father and of the Son 
and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever I have commanded you: and be- 
hold I am with you all days, even to the consumma- 
tion of the world.” 78 
These words were spoken by Christ after His Res- 
urrection. They were almost the last words spoken 
21 Huseb. Eccl. Hist. VIII: 2. 


22 Kuseb. Eecl. Hist. VIII: 12. 
23 Matt. 28. 18. 


162 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


by Him to the Apostles. If you observe, He says: 
“Behold I am with you all days.” He does not 
say: I shall be with you, but J am with you all 
days. Only God can speak thus, for to God alone 
the future is present. There is no past or future 
with God,— all is present. That is why Christ said 
to the Jews: ‘Before Abraham was made, I am.” 

That was the name God gave Himself when He 
commissioned Moses to be the leader of the Israelites, 
Iam whoam. Jehovah is the Hebrew word for that 
expression. It means that God is the Being Hauist- 
ing Always. 

And because Christ is God, the Always Existent 
Being, He said: “JZ am with you to the consumma- 
tion of the world.”’ Hence it is that His Church has 
always been divinely sustained. Were it not for that, 
the early persecutions would indeed have annihilated 
Christianity. 

The faith of those early Christians was based on 
the Resurrection. By that they knew that Christ 
was what He said He was, for He appealed to the 
Resurrection as a confirmation of His divine claims. 
As the Resurrection required a divine power, it was 
the divine seal on Christ’s mission. ‘That was clear 
to the early Christians. That was why they believed 
and gave their lives for their belief. 

The establishment of Christianity, therefore, was 
something beyond human power to effect. The doc- 
trines it taught, the morals it inculcated, and the 


ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 163 


persecutions which accompanied it, made it humanly 
impossible to succeed. The one reason given by 
the Apostles and their successors for its acceptance 
was the Resurrection. 

The Establishment being an undoubted fact, so 
was its cause, the Resurrection, a fact. The Estab- 
lishment being a fact beyond human power, so was 
its cause, the Resurrection, a fact beyond human 
power. The Resurrection was therefore a divine 
fact, the seal of God Almighty on the mission of 
Jesus Christ, the only Son of God. 


CHAPTER VIII 
CHRIST HIMSELF 


HERE was really no need of Christ’s giving 

a sign as the credential of His nature and 

mission. He Himself was the very best cre- 

dential. For never was there a personality like His 

in the world. Even those who do not accept His 

religion affirm that He is as far superior to the rest 
of mankind as heaven is above earth. 

The words of Rosseau will bear repetition: 
“Ves, if the life and death of Socrates are those of 
a wise man, the life and death of Jesus are those of 
a God, ... and the facts in the life of Socrates 
are not as well attested as those in the life of Jesus 
Christ.” That is the estimate of a man who was not 
a Christian. It may be asked, how could he help 
belonging to the religion of Christ if he held Him in 
such high regard ? 

Faith is something more than a syllogism. Intel- 
lect and reasoning are not enough to make one a 
follower of the meek and humble Jesus. The heart 
must be right, the intellect must bow down in hu- 
mility. If we approach Christ merely to analyze 


and dissect Him, we shall not find His divinity. A 
164 


CHRIST HIMSELF 165 


surgeon never yet saw the human soul, no matter 
how often or thoroughly he dissected the living or 
dead. But any surgeon may see the soul in the 
laughter of a child; or in the eyes of a mother as 
they beam on her babe. 

And so if we would see the divinity of Jesus 
Christ, we must look at Him with our hearts as well 
as with our heads. And the heart must be clean and 
sincere. Pride of intellect was Satan’s sin. Jt made 
him refuse to acknowledge the authority of God. 
That same pride of intellect makes many refuse to 
acknowledge the divinity of Christ. They prefer to 
worship their own intellect rather than Him who 
gave it to them. 

The question before us, therefore, is, has Christ | 
given us such evidence of His divinity that, if we 
wish to consider it as we do other things in life, we 
must believe Him to be God? And if we believe 
Him to be God, is it not our duty to trust Him and 
believe Him, rather than to understand Him ? 

If therefore He gives us truths which are above 
our comprehension, our duty is to bow down and 
adore. We daily surrender our judgment to experts 
in their respective lines. God asks us to bow down 
our judgment to His. If He did not ask that much 
of us He would not be God. 

The very objection, therefore, of infidels and ra- 
tionalists, that they cannot altogether understand His 
doctrine, becomes an argument for the divinity of 


& 


166 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


Christ. For if He were not God, He never could 
have proposed for our acceptance ideas which the 
human mind could never have conceived of itself, 
and which, after being proposed, still remain incom- 
prehensible. 

I intend to show, therefore, that the teaching of 
Jesus and the deeds of Jesus and the personality of 
Jesus are just what we should expect from God. 
Also it will appear that everything He said and did 
and was, becomes absolutely incomprehensible unless 

He was God. 
| Tf He were not God, His words are the most insane 


~ nonsense that ever came from a disordered brain. 


But Christ’s whole life shows that never was there on 
this earth a person with such poise and judgment 
and dignity and sanity as He always displayed. 
This is acknowledged by all. Realizing therefore 
that He was a supremely sane man, let us consider 
His words and see how very consistent they are with 
divinity, and how absolutely inconsistent they are 
with anything less than divinity. 

In the first place, I shall show that Christ made 
Himself the equal of Almighty God. Now, if He 
were not insane, that was a claim which He never 
would have made unless He was God. Afterwards 
I shall show that He acted in all things as Almighty 
God would act, thus proving by deeds the truth of 
what He declared by word. If therefore there are 


CHRIST HIMSELF 167 


some who admit Christ’s words, but hold that He 
did not mean them in their true sense, they are con- 
fronted with His deeds, which are exactly in con- 
formity with the obvious sense of His words. 

Jesus Himself, knowing that His claims were al- 
together beyond anything that a created being could 
make, was very considerate with His hearers. He 
was not astonished at their surprise on hearing Him 
declare He was God. On a certain occasion He 
said: “I and the Father are one.”* The Jews 
were so incensed at this that they actually took up 
stones to stone Him. That shows that they under- 
stood Him in the true sense. 

Jesus, in His consideration for them, said: 
“Many good works I have shown you from my Fa- 
ther, for which of those works do you stone me’ 
The Jews answered him: For a good work we stone 
thee not, but for blasphemy; and because thou being 
a man, makest thyself God.” ? 

You see there was no misunderstanding what 
He meant. It was not Oriental exaggeration or 
poetic imagery. He said: “I and the Father are 
one,” and they took His words in their literal and 
true sense, and accused Him of blasphemy. If He 
were not speaking with the exact meaning of the 
words, they would not have thus accused Him of a 
sin punishable by death. You know He was the 

1 John, 10. 30. 2 John, 10. 33. 


168 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


only person in the world who was able to say: 
“Which of you shall convince me of sin?”* If 
He blasphemed in this case, He was guilty of a most 
dreadful sin. 

But hear His reply to their charge, and see if any- 
one could meet the accusation more wisely or more 
sincerely: ‘‘ Do you say of him whom the Father 
hath sanctified and sent into the world: Thou 
blasphemest, because I said I am the Son of God? 
If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 
But if I do, though you will not believe me, believe 
the works; that you may know and believe that the 
Father is in me and I in the Father.” * 


Jesus refers constantly to the Father as God Al- | 


mighty. When He was dying on the Cross, He said: 
“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” ° 
It was to God He was commending His soul, and He 
calls Him Father. Again He said: ‘I came forth 
from the Father and am come into this world; again 
T leave the world, and I go to the Father. His dis- 
ciples say tohim: Behold now thou speakest plainly, 
now we know that thou knowest all things. By this 
we believe that thou camest forth from God.” ® 

In this text the Father is clearly identified with 
God, as in many other texts. I specify this, because 
in the passages which I shall give presently, Christ 
constantly refers to Himself as doing what the Fa- 


3 John, 8. 46. 5 Luke, 23. 46. 
4 John, 10. 36. 6 John, 10. 28. 


ee eee ee ee Se ee ee en le 


CHRIST HIMSELF 169 


ther does, and being what the Father is. These pre- 
liminary remarks will prepare us for a full appre- 
ciation of the magnitude and the literal meaning of 
Christ’s assertions as to who and what He is. 

I shall now present His declarations, and I chal- | 
lenge anyone to say that they could be uttered by a 
sane person unless that person was God. 

“The high priest said to him: Art thou the 
Christ the Son of the blessed God? And Jesus said 
to him: I am.”* When Jesus made that declara- 
tion, He was solemnly adjured by the living God to 
say who He was. His reply was direct, clear, abso- 
lute. He said He was the Son of God. 

The Jews understood Him to mean that He was 
truly God, the same as Jehovah, for they said: 
“ You have heard the blasphemy. What think you ? 
Who all condemned him to be guilty of death.” ® 
This declaration of Christ’s was a confirmation of 
His divinity which He had proclaimed so often in the 
course of His teaching and conversation. 

Witness the following statements which none but 
a crazy man could make except it was God Himself 
speaking: 

“ All things whatsoever the Father hath are 
mine:’’'; * 

“Tam the light of the world”; ?° 

“YT am the resurrection and the life; he that be- 


7 Mark, 14. 61. 9 John, 16. 15. 
8 Mark, 14. 64. 10 John, 8. 12. 


170 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


lieveth in me, although he be dead shall live”; 1! 

“T am the way, the truth and the life; no man 
cometh to the Father but by me”; 3” 

‘All power is given to me in heaven and in 
earth ” ; 13 

“He that loveth father or mother more than me 
is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daugh- 
ter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that 
taketh not up his cross and followeth after me is not 
worthy of me. He that loseth his life for my sake 
shall find it”; 14 

“Going therefore teach ye all nations, teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you: and behold I am with you all days, 
even to the consummation of the world ”; 1° 

“‘ Before Abraham was made, I am”’; 16 

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know 
thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou 
hast sent”; 17 

“Father, I will that where I am, they also whom 
thou has given me may be with me, that they may 
see my glory, which thou has given me because thou 
hast loved me before the creation of the world”; }8 

“Father, all my things are thine, and thine are 


mine ”? : 19 
11 John, 11. 26. 16 John, 8. 58. 
12 John, 14. 6. 17 John, 17. 3. 
13 Matt. 28. 18. 18 John, 17. 24. 
14 Matt. 10. 37. 19 John, 17. 10. 


15 Matt. 28. 20. 


CHRIST HIMSELF 171 


“ Bor God so loved the world, as to give his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him may 
not perish, but may have life everlasting ” ; °° 

“The woman saith to him: I know that the Mes- 
sias cometh (who is called Christ), therefore when 
he is come he will tell us all things. Jesus saith to 
her: I am he”; 

“ Every one that confesseth me before men, I will 
also confess him before my Father who is in 
heaven ”’; 2” 

“Dost thou believe in the Son of God? Answer- 
ing, he said: Who is he, Lord, that I may believe 
in him? And Jesus said to him: Thou hast both 
seen him, and it is he who talketh with thee. And 
he said: I believe, Lord; and falling down he 
adored him ”’; 78 

“What things soever the Father doth, these the 
Son also doth in like manner. For as the Father 
raiseth up the dead and giveth life, so the Son also 
giveth life to whom he will, that all may honor the 
Son as they honor the Father.” ** 

That is clearly identifying Himself with Almighty 
God, affirming equal power with God, claiming equal 
reverence with God, demanding equal service with 
God. Is that not speaking as God ? 

Who but God has a right to our love in preference 

20 John, 3. 16. 23 John, 9. 36. 


21 John, 4. 25. 24 John, 5. 19. 
22 Matt. 10. 32. 


172 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


to father and mother and son and daughter? Who 
but God can ask us to lay down our life and assure 
us that in so doing we are saving it? Who but God 
can say: All power is Mine in heaven and in earth ? 
Who but God can give commandments to all the na- 
tions of the earth ? 

Unless Christ is-indeed God, the real substantial 
Son of the eternal God, all His words are the worst 
blasphemy or the greatest nonsense. His words 
therefore are His credential. We must either be- 
lieve what He says, or put Him down insane. 

The Roman centurion who presided over the Cru- 
cifixion and witnessed the serene, forgiving and pa- 
tient Christ die on the Cross, pronounced the right 
estimate on Jesus when he said: “ Indeed, this 
man was the Son of God.” *° That soldier was not 
an idealist or an enthusiast. He was a plain com- 
mon sense man. And the character of Jesus so im- 
pressed him that he proclaimed the divinity of the 
man he had executed. 

And the thief alongside Jesus, nailed to a cross, 
also read His character rightly when he said: 
“ Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy 
kingdom.” 7® A rough soldier and a hardened crim- 
inal, men accustomed to hard facts, men devoid of 
sentiment, men who knew humanity, saw Jesus in 
His supreme hour of trial, the hour that tests the 


25 Matt. 27. 54. 
26 Luke, 23. 42. 


CHRIST HIMSELF 173 


soul and the mind, and their judgment was that He 
was what He said He was. 

We know how fanatics and deluded men die. We 
know their extravagance and their frenzy. But in 
the whole life of Jesus, as well as in His death, there 
is not one incident that does not show the most abso- 
lute calm and poise and judgment. He therefore 
who spoke those words proclaiming His equality with 
God did so because He was in very truth the Son of 
God. 

His whole career stands out as that of a person of 
supreme sagacity and judgment. This is manifest 
not only in the wonderful prudence He displayed on 
every occasion, but also and especially in His dis- 
courses. It is impossible to conceive of anything 
more perfect and sublime than the teaching of Christ. 

His precepts force even rationalists to express the 
highest admiration for Him. Strauss says: “ The 
moral teaching of Christ is the foundation of human 
civilization, . . . the Jesus of history is a type of 
moral perfection.” Renan observes: ‘ The teach- 
ing of Jesus is the most beautiful moral teaching 
which humanity has received. . . . Each one of us 
owes to it all that is best in him. . . . The Sermon 
on the Mount will never be surpassed.” 

The Person who taught the world its sublimest 
morality was neither insane nor under a delusion. 
And this Person speaks just as He who is God should 
speak. His words therefore are His credentials to 


174 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


divinity. You must prove that Jesus Christ is either 
a fool or an impostor if you want to set aside His 
divinity. 

This will appear even more evident when we con- 
sider the deeds of Jesus in conjunction with His 
words. For He actually exercised a power which 
belongs to God alone. If His words declared Him 
to be the Son of God, His deeds confirmed His dee- 
larations. In all things He acted as a divine Per- 
son. He spoke as never man spoke before. He 
constantly displayed a power which none but God 
Himself could exert. He exercised prerogatives 
which appertain exclusively to God Almighty. 

It belongs to God to forgive sins. In His own 
name and by His own authority, Christ forgave sins. 
Of course anyone may say to another: “ ‘Thy sins 
are forgiven thee.” That proves nothing. Christ 
knew that. That is why He said to the astonished 
bystanders: ‘ That you may know that the Son of 
man hath power on earth to forgive sins (then said 
he to the man sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy 
bed, and go into thy house. And he arose and went 
into his house.” 27 

When Christ said to this paralytic: ‘“ Thy sins 
are forgiven thee,” the multitude whispered that 
only God could forgive sins. He took them at their 
word, and, to show He was God, He not only forgave 
sins, but confirmed the forgiveness by a divine act. 


27 Matt. 9. 6. 


ae Ne ee ee ey ee Pee eee ey ee 


a 


\ 
CHRIST HIMSELF 175 


He therefore acted as He who is God should act, 
forgiving offences committed against God. 

Another exercise of divine power was His making 
laws for all mankind. Only God has the right to 
legislate for the entire human race. Christ did that. 

“Go ye into the whole world and preach the Gos- 
pel to every creature. He that believeth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall 
be condemned.” 78 

“ A new commandment I give unto you, that you 
love one another.” 7° 

“You have heard that it hath been said: thou 
shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I 
say to you, love your enemies, do good to them that 
hate you, and pray for them that persecute and 
calumniate you, that you may be the children of 
your Father who is in heaven.” °° 

“Amen, amen, I say unto you, that he who hear- 
eth my word and believeth him that sent me, hath 
life everlasting, and cometh not unto judgment, but 
is passed from death to life.” 31 

Not only does He legislate for mankind, but He 
moreover sets Himself up as universal Judge: 

“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of 
his Father with his angels, and then will he render 
to every man according to his works.” 3? 

28 Mark, 16. 15. 31 John, 5. 25. 


29 John, 13. 34. 32 Matt. 16. 27. 
30 Matt. 5. 43. 


176 OREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


“ And when the Son of man shall come in his 
majesty and all the angels with him, then shall he 
sit upon the seat of his majesty, and all nations shall 
be gathered together before him, and he shall sep- 
arate them one from another” ; *° 

“The hour cometh wherein all that are in the 
eraves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
they that have done good shall come forth unto the 
resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, 
unto the resurrection of judgment.” ** 

Was it possible for Christ to assume such author- 
ity over all mankind if He was not the real Son of — 
God ¢ 

In the old law, God Himself commanded the Sab- 
bath to be kept holy. When the Jews found fault 
with Christ for healing on the Sabbath, He declared: 
“The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” *° 
He thus identified Himself with the God of the Ten 
Commandments, the great Jehovah, who legislated 
for all mankind and was Lord of the Sabbath. 

In another very noticeable way He assumed divine 
power when, in His own name and by His own au- 
thority, He showed He was the Author of life: 

“ Behold a dead man was carried out, the only son 
of his mother, and she was a widow. Whom when 
the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards 
her, he said to her: Weep not. And he came near 


33 Matt. 25. 31. 85 Luke, 6. 5. 
34 John, 5. 28. 


CHRIST HIMSELF EGd 


and touched the bier, and they that carried it stood 
still. And he said: Young man, I say to thee, 
arise. And he that was dead sat up and began to 
speak. And he gave him to his mother.” 3° 

That was clearly the exercise of divine power. 
Christ made no appeal to any power above, He made 
use of no remedies, He went through no formalities 
of any kind. He simply spoke the word, and the 
lifeless clay became a living being. It was by a 
word only that God made all things in the beginning. 
By a word only, Christ made that corpse to be a 
living soul. It was an act of divine power. 

On another occasion, ‘‘ when he entered into the 
boat, his disciples followed him. And behold a great 
tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was covered 
with waves, but he was asleep. And they came to 
him and awaked him saying: Lord, save us, we per- 
ish. And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fear- 
ful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up, he com- 
manded the winds and the sea, and there came a great 
calm.” 37 

Truly God-like! A man may command men. 
Only God can command the elements. 

Let us pause here for a moment and reflect. If 
God really came on earth and stood before you, and 
you wished Him to do something divine, could you 
ask anything more of Him than Christ has actually 
done? He forgave sins, made laws for all mankind, 

36 Luke, 7. 12. 87 Matt. 8. 24. 


178 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


declared Himself universal Judge of the living and 
the dead, proclaimed Himself Lord of the Sabbath, 
raised the dead to life, and commanded nature, which 
obeyed Him as a servant obeys a master. 

How can His divinity and the divinity of Chris- 
tianity be doubted! It never would be doubted if it 
did not require mankind to live a life raised above 
passion and evil tendencies. It never would be 
doubted if it permitted man to be a law unto him- 
self. It would never be doubted if it flattered the 
pride of man. 

The evidence for the divinity of Christ is so clear 
from the Gospels that one must reject them altogether 
or accept the divine claims of Jesus. Rejection of 
the Gospels is the only way out of it. Those who 
try to explain away the clear meaning of Christ’s 
words when He declares He is the Son of God are 
confronted by His actions, which are in full har- 
mony with His literal claims to divinity. 

He not only says He is the Son of God, the real 


Son of God, but He lives up to the idea of the real — 


Son of God. In all His deeds He comports Him- 
self as God. Those therefore who reject the Gospels 
as a true record are the only ones who proceed with 
a semblance of logic. ‘They are more consistent than 
any others. 

But these too have the ground taken from under 
them by the fact that the critical and scientific schol- 
ars of the world are agreed that the Gospels are 


Ee ee ee i ee oe ae 


— oe oe 


eo 2 ae 


an, <, 


CHRIST HIMSELF 179 


genuine. No document of history was ever so vio- 
lently assailed as the Gospels, and no document ever 
came through the ordeal so triumphantly. 

Today, after the most critical scrutiny of every- 
thing bearing on these writings, the Gospels stand 
forth as true history. They mark the turning point 
of the world. We number our years from the Christ 
of the Gospels. We call the period beginning with 
the Gospels the Christian era. There was no Sun- 
day before the Resurrection of Christ. These, and 
countless other facts, attest the reality of Christ and 
the significance of His mission among men. 

Therefore men of science, materialists, rational- 
ists, infidels, all you who refuse to accept Christian- 
ity, on what grounds do you do so? Is it because the 
wish is father to the thought? Is it because its 
morality is too lofty? But do you realize that all 
the kindly influences of the age in which you live 
are due to that same morality? If, spite of Chris- 
tianity, human nature is as vicious as it is, what 
would it be if Christ had never come and if His 
benign influence had never been felt ? 

The personality of Jesus Christ and His teaching 
have transformed the world. I shall now proceed 
to demonstrate this statement. It will be another 
proof, if such be needed, that Jesus Christ is the Son 
of God, and that Christianity is divine. 

The great outstanding feature of Christ’s charac- | 
ter is His disinterestedness. He did not come to do 


180 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


His own will, He did not live for His own welfare. 
He came to do the will of His Father and He was 
obedient unto death. In that obedience He did not 
consider His own comfort or advantages, but solely 
the welfare of the human race. He impressed on 
the world by His words, and especially by His life, 
the great fact of-the Fatherhood of God and the 
Brotherhood of Man. 

These truths were the working principle of Chris- 
tianity, and I now invite you to consider their re 
markable and truly supernatural effects in the world. 
Nothing but a divine cause could effect the changes 
I shall enumerate. 

Human culture, civilization, the wisest of sages 
and the greatest of rulers, had done all in their power 
when Christianity appeared, but with little or no 
results, for the amelioration of the masses, of man- 
kind. But the teaching, the example and the per- 
sonality of Christ, operating through Christianity, 
accomplished what was humanly impossible. For 
though Jesus came primarily, not for the bestowal 
of temporal or material benefits, but for our eternal 
welfare, nevertheless His spirit and His law actually 
guide men to a happier and better existence on this 
earth also. 

Ilis personality pervades His religion. And the 
main thing about His personality was His absolute 
regard for the will of His Father. That it was 


which dominated His life, His discourses and His 


CHRIST HIMSELF 181 


doctrine. And that is the character impressed on 
His religion. For Christianity directs us, above all 
else, to do God’s will: “ Thy will be done on earth 
as it is in heaven.” 

In doing God’s will we are doing what is best for 
us here and hereafter. Christianity not only com- 
mands us to do that will, but also tells us definitely 
what it is. God Almighty speaks to us, not directly, 
but by His appointed means, the Church: “He 
that heareth you, heareth me.” 3° 

Now Jesus in His own person shows us that the 
greatest thing in life is God’s will. In the Garden 
of Gethsemani His utterance was: ‘ Not my will, 
but thine be done.” 9° Again He said: “TI seek 
not my own will, but the will of him that sent 
me’’; #° and in another place, ““I came down from 
heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him 
that sent me.” #4 Christ set so much store by the 
will of God that He declared: ‘“ For whosoever shall 
do the will of God, he is my brother.” * 

The object of Christianity is therefore the same as 
that which Christ had on earth, namely, to bring 
men to respect and do the will of God. “If thou 
wilt enter into life everlasting, keep the command- 
ments.” 42 “If you love me, keep my command- 
ments.” #4 Christ made the keeping of the com- 


38 Luke, 10. 16. 42 Mark, 3. 35. 
39 Luke, 22. 42. 43 Matt. 19. 17. 
40 John, 5. 30. 44 John, 14. 15. 


41 John, 6. 38. 


182 OREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


mandments the test of love for Him and the pledge 


of eternal life. 


It will be observed from a comparison of these two — 


texts just cited that Christ calls the commandments 
“My commandments.” It was God Himself who 
gave the commandments on Mt. Sinai. Jesus here 
designates them as His commandments, thus speak- 
ing as God Himself. And as God He tells us that 
the commandments are the way to our last end, 
union with our Father in heaven. 

It was this very thing which operated so power- 
fully through Christianity to effect the wonderful 
transformation and betterment of mankind which we 
shall consider in our next chapter. For the great 
source of evil in the world is man’s doing his own 
will rather than God’s. Man wants to do his own 
will, to be a law unto himself. That is the main 
reason for opposition to Christianity. 

But God’s way is always the best way. Man, in 
following his own will makes himself his own law- 
giver. And as his passions urge him to self-indul- 
gence, he seeks his own gratification at the cost of 
justice and consideration for others. That brings 
about oppression, greed, selfishness, and all the train 
of miseries which human nature is heir to. 

The personality of Christ, divinely submissive, 
teaches the world not to seek its own will, but God’s 
will. It teaches mankind that right and justice and 
charity are supreme. And when these principles pre- 


a 


CHRIST HIMSELF 183 


vail, man is better here as well as hereafter. “Seek 
ye therefore first the kingdom of God and his jus- 
tice” #° That was Christ’s spirit and it marked 
His personality throughout. His followers practis- 
ing His precepts and imitating His example have 
transformed the world, as we shall see. 

Jesus Christ, therefore, by His words and His 
deeds and His personality, stands out divine. His 
words proclaim His divinity, His deeds illustrate 
His divinity, His character manifests His divinity. 
He is His own greatest credential. Nothing like 
unto Him has ever been in the world and never will 
be: “Jam Alpha and Omega,’’*® the first and the 
last, the beginning of all things and the end of all; 
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God, . . . and the 
Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.” 47 

Jesus Christ was therefore the Word made flesh. 
With us a word is the outward manifestation of our 
mind. It expresses exteriorly our invisible thought. 
Jesus Christ expresses visibly the invisible God. By 
the Incarnation, He became flesh, that is, He assumed 
human nature and dwelt among us as the God-man, 
manifesting the Deity to our mortal sight. 

“In him was life, and the life was the light of 
men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the dark- 
ness did not comprehend it. ... He was in the 


45 Matt. 6. 33. 47 John, 1. 1. 
46 Apoc. l. 8. 


184 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


world, and the world was made by him, and the 
world knew him not. He came into his own, and his 
own received him not, but as many as received him, 
he gave them power to be made the sons of God.” ** 
This was the proclamation of the Fatherhood of 
God and the Brotherhood of Mankind inculeated by 
Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It was the divine 
seed which has developed into the tree of Christian- 
ity which now overspreads the earth. Some of its 
fruits we shall now behold as we consider the con- 
dition of mankind as a result of the divine person- 
ality of Jesus Christ and the message which He 
brought to this world from His eternal Father. 


48 John, 1. 4. 


CHAPTER IX 
CHRIST AND THE WORLD 


CREED that is from God must enable man 

to meet the vicissitudes of life beneficially. 

It is preposterous to conceive that the Cre- 

ator would fashion man so exquisitely only to make 

of him an endurance machine. A wise maker could 
not create merely to afilict. 

And in the end, what is every life but an afilic- 
tion? For death is our end. And death is pre- 
ceded by a painful illness or a frightful accident. 
No one ean escape those two visitations. What a 
termination for the masterpiece of creation and for 
the lords of the earth ! 

The works of man himself have a better destiny 
than man himself, unless suffering and death end 
in something else. No creed can be divine, there- 
fore, that does not teach man how to meet these or- 
deals properly. 

The sages of ancient and modern times have tried 
in vain to find a solution for the problem of suffer- 
ing and death. It is the great mystery of mankind. 
Jesus Christ solved the problem and cleared away 


the mystery. He shows us how to face the hardships 
185 


186 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


of life hopefully. He shows us how to regard the 
calamities of life serenely. He enables us to meet 
the sorrows and casualties of life beneficially. 

His relation with the world thus becomes a special 
credential for the divinity of His mission and for 
the truth of Christianity. We shall now consider 
this credential in “its various aspects. To the real 
student of life, it speaks as clearly as the Resurrec- 
tion or any other of the supernatural deeds of the 
Founder of Christianity. 

Christ did not come into the world for Himself, 
but for mankind. He did not live for Himself, but 
for us. He came to set the world right. His mis- 
sion was to establish the proper relation between man 
and God. Man, misled by the lure of material 

things, made them the object of his worship and the 
aim of his existence. Christ came to give mankind 
the true outlook on life. 

His object was to show us the marvelous potential- 
ity of the few years of our earthly career. He 
pointed out our true destiny, its grandeur, and the 
way to attain it. After declaring that He was God, 
and confirming His declaration by doing divine 
things, He gave His message to the world. That 
message forms one of the credentials of Christianity. 

Jesus Christ alone, of all the persons in the world, 
gave the solution to the problem of life. This prob- 
lem has always been concerned with two mysteries, 


suffering and death. Until Christ’s message came . 


CHRIST AND THE WORLD 187 


into the world, there was no satisfactory explanation 
of these human afflictions. 

Sages and philosophers had worked on the prob- 
lem, but with no result. The only conclusion they 
arrived at was fatalistic. The most they could say 
to mankind was to bear these evils stoically. Even 
so they only reached a small following and that for 
a short time. The majority of mankind was mysti- 
fied by the existence of suffering and death. They 
looked upon these afflictions as a necessary evil to 
be borne because there was no alternative. 

Jesus Christ changed all that. This one thing 
alone would stamp His mission as divine. No one 
else in the world had ever given a solution that was at 
once satisfactory and beneficial to mankind and hon- 
orable to the Creator. Christ not only gave the so- 
lution by word, but He further exemplified it by 
deed. First He showed by His own life what was 
the significance of suffering and death, and then He 
proclaimed it to the world. 

Nothing ever had such effect on the world as 
Christ’s teaching in regard to suffering and death. 
It really transformed man’s outlook on life. Now 
anything that could thus change the current of hu- 
man thought, not merely for a time but for all time, 
demands our consideration. By analyzing it, we 
shall see that it presents us one of the soundest cre- 
dentials for the truth of Christianity. 

Jesus Christ showed the world that suffering and 


188 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


death are not merely inevitable events in every life, 
but that they are potentialities of the highest and 
most lasting good. He showed that these inevitable 
ordeals of every human career may be converted into 
incalculable advantage. He justifies the ways of 
Providence by showing how the adversities of life 
may become most beneficial to man. 

In that way He introduces into life an outlook 
that will enable even the most unfortunate to face 
the issues of this mortal career hopefully, serenely 
and beneficially. And how did Christ do this? In 
the way that none but a divine authority could do it. 

Tt is all very well to say that suffering and death 
may be beneficial to mankind. Anyone may say that. 
But to say it with authority, to say it in a way that 
will grip mankind, to say it in such wise that millions 
will live by it and die for it and exemplify in their 
lives and deaths the hopefulness and cheerfulness 
which He inculeates, that is something which not 
anyone may do, but only He who has divine power 
and authority. 

Christ effected a cheerful outlook among men, no 
matter what adversities faced them. In the early 
ages of Christianity, His followers met with greater 
adversities and hardships than ever afflicted man- 
kind. And they bore themselves so serenely and so 
buoyantly that their very bearing caused their tor- 
mentors to be converted to their faith. 

Even the pagans realized that the serenity of 


CHRIST AND THE WORLD 189 


Christians under afflictions was a new and divine 
thing in the world. Women and children advanced 
joyfully in the Roman amphitheatre to meet the lions. 
Although they knew that they were going to be torn 
to pieces, they went to their laceration cheerfully, 
chanting hymns. They resembled rather brides go- 
ing to their nuptials than victims going to slaughter. 
And, in very truth, they were going to their nuptials 
with their Bridegroom Christ. That made them 
happy amidst the physical dread of pain and dissolu- 
tion. 

And their exultation was not fanatical. It was 
caused by no emotional wave. It was calm, courage- 
ous, serene and sublime. For it was their faith in 
Jesus Christ and His promises that made them 
strong and hopeful. That went on, not for five or 
twenty or fifty years, but for three centuries, and in 
various forms it has gone on ever since, and is going 
on today, and will go on forever. 

Before Christ taught, He lived His teaching. 
That is what makes it so effective and true. Having 
joy set before Him, He chose sorrow; having life in 
His possession, He laid it down of His own accord. 
He not only deliberately chose to undergo suffering 
and death, but endured both with a calmness and 
serenity that evoked from the Roman soldier the ex- 
clamation that indeed He was the Son of God. 

That Roman soldier was accustomed to suffering 
and death. He had frequently inflicted both on his 


1909 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


victims. But he never saw anything like the way in 
which Christ endured. He knew what suffering was 
in his own case, and how even strong and brave men 
endure, but he never knew anything like the calm 
endurance of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus, says Scripture, began to do and to teach. 
He first did what He was afterwards to preach unto 
others to do. The teachers of the world first teach, 
and seldom or never do what they teach. Some of 
the greatest exponents of virtue by speech, were the 
vilest exponents of it by deed. 

Christ, having demonstrated that He was God, 
saw fit to embrace suffering and death. Then, hay- 
ing exemplified His teaching, having applied it to 
Himself, He proclaimed it to the world. And from 
that day to this, every follower of Jesus Christ can 
face the trials and hardships and calamities, and sor- 
rows of life cheerfully. And millions upon millions 
have so faced them, and so face them today. 

What St. Paul said of himself has been repeated 
by myriads of afflicted ones since: 

“ But we glory also in tribulation, knowing that 
tribulation worketh patience; and patience trial; and 
trial hope; and hope confoundeth not, because the 
charity of God is poured forth in our hearts ”; 4 

“IT reckon that the sufferings of this time are not 
worthy to be compared with the glory to come”; ? 

‘ That which is at present momentary and light of 

1 Rom. 5, 3. 2 Rom. 8. 18. 


CHRIST AND THE WORLD 191. 


our tribulation worketh for us above measure exceed- 
ingly an eternal weight of glory.” ® 

You see that this great Apostle, who willingly en- 
dured suffering and death for Jesus Christ, under- 
stood that these tribulations were productive. He 
speaks of them as working out a harvest of happl- 
ness in the life beyond. With that outlook on life 
he, like so many followers of Jesus, rejoiced that 
they were worthy to suffer for His sake. 

Let us see now how Jesus effected this change in 
the world. As we analyze the matter, we shall ob- 
serve that His teaching was effective because it was 
founded on the nature of things. Truth never rests 
on a false basis. Enduring results cannot come from 
false principles. It was because Christ was divine 
and knew the nature of things intimately that He 
was able to give the solution to the mystery of suffer- 
ing and death, and in so doing give us a special cre- 
dential for the divinity of His mission. 

Let us analyze suffering and see if we cannot find 
how it is that Jesus could say with truth: “ Your 
sorrow shall be turned into joy.” * In the light of 
His assurances, we may understand suffering and 
death in a way which we could not if He had not 
spoken. 

He has told us that it was necessary for Himself 
to suffer in order to enter into His glory. He has 


3 II Cor. 4. 17. 5 Luke, 24. 26. 
4 John, 16. 20. 


192 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


also declared that they who suffer for justice sake. 
are blessed,® that he who loses his life for His sake 
shall find it,” and that our sorrow, no matter what it 
be, will be turned into joy.® 

These are His declarations, and they influenced the 
whole Christian world. They brought hopefulness 
into millions of doomed and desperate lives. They 
serve today as the vital principle of millions the 
world over. By looking into the nature of suffering, 
we shall see the basis on which Christ rested His 
teaching on this all important matter. 

Even in this life suffering may be beneficial. 
There is such a thing as productive suffering, as 
well as barren suffering. The pain suffered by the 
knitting together of a fracture is productive suffer- 
ing. It produces something. It results in a sound 
limb. The pain suffered by lancing a boil is pro- 
ductive. It causes the healing of the diseased parts. 

On the other hand, there is such a thing as barren 
suffering. The pain caused by a cancer is barren, 
it produces nothing but suffering. It is borne with 
bad grace, and protestingly, and desperately, that is, 
of course, if religion is not a factor. 

Suffering is like soil. Some soil is barren, other 
is productive. If you had a square mile of sandy 
soil in the Sahara Desert and cultivated it for a 
year, you would produce nothing but toil. But if 


6 Matt. 5. 10. 8 John, 16. 20. 
7 Luke, 9. 24. 


ST; oe a 


CHRIST AND THE WORLD 193 


you spent the same efforts on fertile western soil, 
you would produce crops sufficient to feed a town- 
ship. 

Suppose you were obliged to labor a whole year 
or a lifetime on the barren sand of Sahara, what a 
hard, desperate existence it would be. That is suf- 
fering which is barren. Christ changed the sand 
of Sahara into the productive soil of fertile valleys. 
He took the barren sufferings of mankind, and, by 
the alchemy of His religion, made it possible for 
every one of His followers to transform them into 
productive sufferings.® 

On the word of God we now have it that the hard- 
ships of life may purchase for us an exceeding weight 
of glory. On God’s word we know that the trials 
of our earthly career can eventuate into the joys of 
heaven. We know that our earthly warfare may 
terminate in a glorious victory for eternity. 

That is what Christ has done. He has not only 
taught that,— anyone might so teach,— but He has 
convinced the millions and millions of His follow- 
ers all through the ages. Pain is not pain if we 
know it ends in joy. Death is not death if we know 
it ends in unending life. Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God, tells us that our sorrow shall be turned into 
joy, and that they who live for Him shall not die 
forever. 

It is the result of suffering that makes all the dif- 

9 Matt. 5. 10. 


194. CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


ference in the world. If it results beneficially, it is 
cheerfully endured; if it results detrimentally, it is 
desperately borne with. That is what makes the 
marked difference between a hospital for the in- 
curable and the ordinary hospital. 

The patients in a hospital for the incurable may 
have every comfort and attention possible, but there 
is an air of depression pervading the place. The 
patients feel doomed. ‘The only result of their suf- 
ferings will be death. Their suffering is barren of 
beneficial results. In an ordinary hospital, on the 
contrary, where the patients may suffer more acutely, 
there is an air of cheerfulness among the sufferers, 
They realize that their pain is productive. They 
have the assurance of their physician that their suffer- 
ings will result in restored health. 

The Great Physician of mankind assures the world 
on divine authority that sufferings, and even death 
itself, will result in a blissful and eternal life, if 
His directions are followed. What a wonderful 
thing it is for the world to realize that what it 
dreads most may become the source of its greatest 
and most lasting happiness. The message of Christ 
to the world makes mankind feel that the hand which 
at times rests heavily on them is that of a Father 
who thereby seeks to bring them more securely home. 

The great war we have just passed through teaches 
us many lessons. The one great lesson it inculcates 
is that we need an outlook on life such as Christ 


CHRIST AND THE WORLD 195 


gave the world. Life is a very precious thing. 
Manhood represents years of life. To arrive at 
man’s estate implies the loving care of parents, the 
continual expenditure of effort, money, and thought, 
on the growing boy, and finally the boy’s own trials 
and struggles in reaching manhood. <A bond of love 
unites a young man to parents, brothers and sisters 
and dearly beloved ones. | 

Yet such a one receives an order to fling himself 
against a battery of machine guns with all the chances 
that his young life will terminate in a frightful 
slaughter. That was the situation that millions had 
to face. And millions more at home faced it in 
spirit. The agony and apprehension at the front, 
and the suspense and afiliction at home, made the 
world at large realize that life which ends with death 
is mostly a tragedy. And so it is without Christ. 
But with His assuring message to mankind, what a 
different aspect life takes on! 

A short time ago I was speaking with a young 
soldier, recently returned from overseas. He had 
gone over the top twice. I asked him how he felt 
when the order came to charge from the trenches. 
He was a good religious young man, and his reply 
was as follows: ‘“‘ When we got the order, a pecul- 
iar feeling crept through my body that resembled 
fainting. I realized that in a moment or two I 
might be a corpse. But that was for an instant only. 
It was followed by a feeling of exaltation, as I real- 


196 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


ized that I was going to be a victor here or in heaven. 
I knew I was doing my duty in laying down my life 
for a just cause, and that made me a sure victor no 
matter how it ended.” 

That was the spirit engendered by the promise 
of Christ: ‘He who loses his hfe for my sake 
shall find it.”” Whoever sacrifices his life for jus- 
tice sake is laying down his life for Christ. 

Later I met another young man who had been 
overseas and had gone over the top. He was a So- 
cialist. I put the same question to him. His reply 
was: “ How did I feel? Do you want to know 
how I felt? I felt just like going into hell.” Of 
course he did not believe in heaven or hell, being a 
Socialist, but the idea expressed by the word hell 
conveyed to him the darkest possible outlook. 

That was the way he went over the top, desperately. 
He obeyed orders because he had to. Compulsion 
can make a man do a great deal. But think of the 
difference between his outlook and that of the Chris- 
tian soldier! That is what Christ has done for the 
world. He has given us the right outlook on life. 
And the world needs that now, as always. 

Christ teaches us to traverse the path of mortality 
with our gaze fixed on a blessed immortality. He 
puts sunshine into the darkest life. And so many 
lives need that. He takes us by the hand and leads 
us home; for “‘ we have not here a lasting city, but 


CHRIST AND THE WORLD 197 


seek one which is to come.” 1° He tells us that in 
His Father’s house there are many mansions, and 
that He has prepared there a place for us.!4 

That is the outlook Jesus Christ has brought into 
the world. And it is so helpful because it is true. 
It has affected the world so strongly because it an- 
swers to the cry of nature. It is the Creator’s solu- 
tion, and for that reason it satisfies the creature. It 
thus becomes for Jesus Christ and His mission a 
credential that cannot be gainsaid. 

We shall consider in the following chapter the re- 
sults effected in the world by the practical applica- 
tion of this Christian principle. It will be seen that 
it radically transformed the world. To some minds, 
the credentials supplied by the facts enumerated in 
the next chapter will prove to be the strongest guar- 
antee for the truth of Christianity. 

Taken in conjunction with what we have already 
advanced, it will afford fair and intelligent minds as 
solid reasons for the acceptance of Christianity as 
were ever presented in behalf of any project. Chris- 
tianity requires only a dispassionate hearing in order 
to be accepted. With a judicial attitude, therefore, 
kindly weigh well the effect of Christ’s teaching in 
the world. 


10 Heb. 13. 14. 11 John, 14. 2. 


CHAPTER X 
THE WORLD AFTER CHRIST 


OTHING tests truth like time, for time 
shows consequences. Consequences are 
facts and facts are stubborn things. One 

fact may offset a hundred argumentations. We are 
now going to appeal to facts as a credential of Chris- 
tianity. Not that Christianity does not bear its own 
inherent credentials of truth, but the facts which we 
shall adduce will bring out that truth more prom- 
inently. 

We propose to show that Christianity encountered 
a condition of evil in the world which was beyond 
remedy by human power, and that it remedied the 
evil. We shall show that wherever Christianity be- 
came established, it transformed mankind. 

The chief blots on civilization before the Christian 
era were idolatry, impurity, debasement of women, 
infanticide, cruelty to the unfortunate, slavery, and 
the torture and butchery of prisoners of war. These 
vices and deformities of society were general, even in 
the best period of Roman civilization. Observe, now, 
how the benign influence of Christianity eradicated 


or ameliorated these dreadful elements of paganism. 
198 


THE WORLD AFTER CHRIST 199 


In demonstrating the changes effected by Chris- 
tianity, the conditions which confronted the religion 
of Christ in its origin, and which are mentioned in 
the first chapter are here presented again, but from 
a different standpoint and for another purpose. 

A mere reference to those conditions would per- 
haps now suffice, but in order to show effectively the 
wonderful achievements of Christianity, the deadly 
vices of pagan civilization are brought in contrast 
with the Christian virtues which supplanted them. 

At the birth of Christianity, every people of the 
world, except the Jews, worshipped idols. Forms 
fashioned by their own hands became the objects of 
adoration in the real sense, that is, these idols were 
either adored as living, powerful beings, capable of 
themselves of helping or hurting mankind, or divine 
honors were paid to creatures represented by them. 

The former were not mere representations, such 
as the Christian religion employs to help us fix the 
mind on supernatural things, or as photographs or 
statues which serve to recall absent ones, but they 
were regarded as powerful beings in themselves. 
They were adored for themselves, without any ref- 
erence to a separate being apart whom they merely 
recalled or represented. Before these hand-made 
deities they bowed down in adoration, celebrated 
elaborate rites, and frequently sacrificed living be- 
ings, and sometimes even human life. 

And it must not be thought that only the ignorant 


200 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


or common people so worshipped. Those in every 
station of life, from the rulers down to the very 
slaves, engaged in this hideous worship. The other 
form of idolatry, by which human beings and other 
living creatures were adored by means of statues 
and other symbols, was common even among the most 
civilized nations before the advent of Christ. 

The Roman emperor was the Pontifex Maximus, 
the supreme High Priest of idolatry. The Roman 
senators worshipped as well as the Roman generals 
and soldiers. ‘The best families of Rome gave their 
daughters as Vestal Virgins to this idolatrous serv- 
ice in the temples. This was at Rome, the centre 
of civilization. In other parts of the Empire, the 
worship was just as general and infinitely more de- 
grading. Even the Roman emperors were deified 
and had statues and temples erected to their wor- 
ship. | 

It is hard to believe that the wise Romans and the 
cultured Greeks could fall so low, but it shows what 
human culture at its best is capable of, and it points 
to the need of help from above, if mankind is to 
live aright. Christianity gave that help. Today 
nowhere in the world where Christianity reigns does 
idolatry exist, and Christianity now dominates most 
of the world. 

Impurity was another hideous disease of pagan 
society at the time of Christ. It was a foul and 


THE WORLD AFTER CHRIST 201 


public vice. It formed part of the rites of idol 
worship. There was no shame about it. The most 
distinguished and honored men of the Empire glori- 
fied their lust. Gods and goddesses were fashioned 
by voluptuous hands and then worshipped by unmen- 
tionable deeds of lust. And that in the open. 

All this is too well known to need proof or insist- 
ence. Pagan society was vile through and through. 
Man had fallen as low as the beasts. He had shown 
how truly his nature was corrupt and how very 
much he stood in need of restoration. 

Christianity was the restorer. Today, nowhere 
in the world may vice raise its head. Vice there is, 
alas, too much of it, for many refuse the restoration, 
but nowhere in the Christian world is there open 
vice. Nowhere in the world may a man look for the 
respect of his fellow man if he is openly immoral. 
Decency rules everywhere, except in hidden places, 
or in the degenerate circles of certain social sets. 
But even these must put on the appearance of virtue, 
so strong is the standard of decency upheld by Chris- 
tianity. 

But the great crying evil of pagan civilization was 
its treatment of woman. The debasement of women 
was the root of idolatry and immorality. Woman 
had fallen or had been forced into the position of a 
mere creature of gratification for the lust of man. 
The most refined pagan nations looked upon their 


202 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


women as they did upon their lands, their cattle and 
their possessions. They regarded them as their orna- 
ments or the means of their enjoyment. 

No people can ever rise above the level of its 
womanhood. The wife and the mother are the very 
foundations of the social structure. If these founda- 
tions are despicable, the whole social edifice will be 
corrupt. And it was that way with pagan civiliza- 
tion at its highest. 

Never was pagan civilization higher than in the 
Augustan Age, never was woman viler. Society had 
to be regenerated from its very foundation. No 
human power could do it. Human effort had done 
its utmost, with the result that woman was never so 
low. But Christianity has changed all that. Chris- 
tianity accomplished the humanly impossible. 

Today throughout the civilized world woman is 
in honor. As mother and as wife she is the most 
respected being on earth. No man dares offer open 
insult to her throughout the confines of civilization. 
As companion of man, not his toy, she is queen of 
the home and the inspiration of all that is best in 


him. She is at the very pinnacle of respect, who - 


before was at the very depth of degradation. 

And what did it? Christianity. For Christ 
chose as His way of entrance into the world not a 
new creation, not some angelic device, but a woman, 
a virgin, the pure Maid of Nazareth. Her He made 
His mother, from her He drew His human nature, 


Cg St te ee os Ve le 


THE WORLD AFTER CHRIST 203 


and it was the blood He received from her veins that 
He shed on Calvary for our redemption. 

That elevated woman. The respect which Chris- 
tians had for Christ’s mother passed to women gen- 
erally. If the women of today hold the lofty station 
that is theirs throughout the world, it is Christianity 
they must thank for it. 

Before the coming of Christ, infanticide was wide- 
spread. Heathen morality saw no wrong in a 
father’s wilful murder of his own child. The great 
Aristotle, who represented in himself the highest 
pagan thought and civilization, lays down the rules 
under which infanticide should be practised.t In 
Rome, the imperial laws sanctioned the act by which 
a father exposed his child to die of cold or hunger. 
The pagans ruthlessly strangled, starved or slew a 
child that was not well favored or that seemed to be 
in the way. 

Jt is hard for us nowadays, with our great respect 
for life, to realize how civilized society tolerated such 
customs and crimes. but our point of view is Chris- 
tian. On this matter, as on a thousand others, our 
sentiments are based on the elevated morality intro- 
duced into the world by Jesus Christ. A condition 
of affairs which seems to us very frightful was to the 
pagans quite proper. We are so accustomed to the 
benefits of Christianity that we fail to appreciate 
their magnitude. 

1 Politics, 7. 16. 


204. CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


In no civilized country of the world is infanticide 
now lawful. That is the fruit of Christianity. In- 
deed, so sacred has Jesus Christ made life that even 
the unborn child is protected. Christianity forbids 
the taking of life, not only after the child has seen 
the light of day, but also during its period of develop- 
ment in the darkness of the maternal womb. 

One of the reasons why Christianity is assailed is 
just because of its strict safeguarding of life. 
Mothers who would avoid the duties of maternity, 
and fathers who would reduce marriage to the level 
of lust, regard Christianity as an enemy. Of course 
voluptuaries will never give the real reason of their 
hostility to Christ and His religion, but cloak it 
under the name of intellectual freedom and advanced 
science. 

But the most independent minds of the ages and 
the best scientists have bowed down before Christ and 
His religion. The whole world would be Christian 
if Christianity permitted each one to legislate for 
himself. But in that case, the fruits of Christianity 
would be nil, rather, there would be universal license. 

That there may be order in an army, there must be 
rules and regulations which restrain individual 
liberty. Otherwise, it would be a mob instead of an 
army. In the world at large, unless religion asserts 
itself over the ways and doings of mankind, it may 
just as well cease to be. 

The wonderful thing about Christianity is that it 


THE WORLD AFTER CHRIST 205 


showed such credentials for its truth that it brought 
the whole Roman Empire under its authority, and 
now the influence of its teaching is felt throughout 
the world. Even non-Christian nations like Japan 
have acquired all that is most admirable in them 
from the study of Christian nations and the adoption 
of Christian policies. 

It was the personality and teaching of Christ that 
effected such a radical change throughout the world. 
No other person, no matter what his wisdom or 
power, ever got a following in vital matters outside 
his own people, and that only for a time. Christ, 
after twenty centuries, has a following all over the 
world, from every nation, and His law is the prac- 
tical guidance of their lives. 

This will appear even more strikingly when we 
consider how He transformed the world in regard to 
philanthropy. Before His coming, it was indeed the 
survival of the fittest. There was no room for the 
weak, the helpless and the unfortunate. No gov- 
ernment made any provision for the poor. There 
was no such thing as a hospital or a home for the 
aged and infirm, or an asylum for orphans, or a 
refuge for the unfortunate. Pagan annals will be 
searched in vain for anything of this character. 

We are so accustomed to these beneficial institu- 
tions that we find it hard to realize that they did not 
always exist. It is another instance of what Chris- 
tianity has done for the world, and the world knows 


206 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


it not. Like Christ Himself who came unto His own 
and they rejected Him, so Christianity, which has 
conferred on the world all that is best in it, is fre- 
quently vilified and assailed by the world. The in- 
gratitude of mankind was not exhausted by the 
Crucifixion. 

In denouncing Christianity, people are doing so 
for one of two reasons,— either because they know 
only a caricature of it, or because they are opposed 
to its lofty morality, thereby confessing their own 
low standards. 

When we consider all the charity that there is in 
the world today, and realize that it is all the out- 
come of Christian teaching, we should reverence its 
holy Founder and His religion. It was the words of 
Christ, that anyone who gave a cup of cold water to 
another for His sake should not lose His reward,? 
and that what was done to one of His least brethren 
was done to Him,* that radically changed the atti- 
tude of man to his fellow man. 

When Jesus proclaimed that all men were 
brethren, the children of their Father in heaven, He 
not only taught the most unheard of doctrine ever 
announced, but also laid the foundations of that 
marvelous charity which constitutes the glory of 
Christian civilization. Do we think of this when 
we hear Christianity derided ? 

In pagan times, there was no feeding of enemy 

2 Matt. 10. 42. 3 Matt. 25. 40. 


THE WORLD AFTER CHRIST 207 


nations, no caring for enemy prisoners. In those 
ages it was Vae victis! Woe to the conquered! 
The Roman law was that a victorious general could 
either slay his prisoners or make them slaves.* 
Those he could not use for work or lust, he often 
butchered, men, women and children. Prisoners of 
war are now so well protected that frequently their 
lot is much better than that of their comrades in 
arms. 

What is that but the practical application of the 
Sermon on the Mount! Philosophers and sages and 
scholars declare that the sublimest discourse ever 
uttered in this world was that Sermon on the Mount. 
It was the personality of Jesus that made it sub- 
lime. 

If He preached forgiveness of injuries and kind- 
ness, not only to friends but to enemies, He also prac- 
tised both in the highest degree. He was not an 
academic lecturer, enthusing over lofty themes in the 
abstract, but He was a teacher who exemplified all 
that He taught. He was the only person in the 
world who could point to Himself and say: ‘ Learn 
of me,” ® “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,” ° 
“He who follows after me walketh not in dark- 
ness.” 7 Only a divine person could use such 
language as that and get a response to it. 

In proof of which, I wish to refer to another effect 


4 Justinian, Inst. 1. 3. 3. 6 John, 14. 6. 
5 Matt. 11. 29. 7 John, 8. 12. 


208 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


in the world brought about by Christianity, namely 
the gradual abolition of slavery. 

“ Tf Christ had not appeared upon earth, I do not 
know how the world could have resisted the despotism 
which was stifling it. JI do not speak here as a 
Christian, but as a historian. In this character I 
affirm that in politics, as well as in morals and 
philosophy, the Gospel gave new life to men. We 
have reason to date our years from the birth of 
Christ, for a new society sprang from the Gospel.” ® 

The average working man in pre-Christian times 
was a slave. At Rome, one citizen owned a thou- 
sand slaves, another ten thousand, another twenty 
thousand. One hundred and twenty million slaves 
were the property of six million freemen. The 
slaves of Rome were so numerous that the Senate 
forbade their wearing a distinct dress for fear that, 
realizing their numbers, they would rise in revolt. 

The law required that if a master was killed by 
one of his slaves, every one of them should be put to 
death, and it is known that as many as three hundred 
slaves were killed on account of the crime of one. 
The condition of the slaves was so bad that frequently 
they took their own lives. The supreme pleasure of 
the Roman people was to witness spectacles wherein 
men fought unto death with men. These gladiators 
were mostly slaves. 

8 Laboulaye, “ L’Etat et ses limites.” 


a ee ee ee See eee 


ee? ee ee, | eee ee a eee ae ee 


Von. * 


or een 


Ree 


THE WORLD AFTER CHRIST 209 


Today there is no slavery in any civilized nation. 
Christianity brought that about. 

We nowadays are inclined to think that slavery 
was an institution which afflicted only the poor 
blacks of Africa and other such peoples. But in 
Greece and Rome the slaves were often more cul- 
tured than their masters. The chance of war made 
the most delicate and refined the slaves of the victors. 

Slavery in modern times was due to the cupidity 
of adventurous men who raided Africa in this traffic 
in human beings. The very fact that these pirates 
had to go to the ends of the earth to carry on their 
inhuman business shows how slavery was stamped 
out of civilization by Christianity. In order to get 
a market for their slaves, these unchristian men of a 
Christian era were obliged to resort to the colonies 
of the New World. But even here, the Christian | 
spirit of the people eventually stamped out the evil. 
It was the spirit of Christianity asserting itself anew. 

The first real emancipation of slavery was the 
liberation of Onesimus, the slave of Philemon, at 
the request of St. Paul, who begged the master to 
free this slave for the love of Jesus Christ, and to 
treat him “ not now as a servant, but instead a most 
dear brother.” ° Christ had said: “As long as 
you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to 
me.” 79 It was that spirit of Jesus permeating man- 

9 Philem. 1. 16. 10 Matt. 25. 40. 


210 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


kind that led to the gradual extinction of slavery. 

We can hardly realize now what a fundamental 
change Christ effected in the world. We are accus- 
tomed to the Christian standards of life and do not 
advert to the wonderful benefits we enjoy. Do you 
ever reflect that in the days of the glory of Greece 
and Rome the prisoners taken in war were made 
slaves! Men and women, often more refined than 
their conquerors, were reduced to absolute slavery in 
many lands. | 

Suppose in this great World War your boys who 
were taken by the enemy were held forever! Sup- 
pose you could never see them again or hear from 
them. And suppose that your only thoughts of them 
would be that they were the slaves of an enemy that 
despised you and them! If your boys have been 
spared that fate, it is due to Christianity. Does not 
that bring home to you what Christianity is? 

Do not fancy that culture and progress could effect 
that change. Greece and Rome surpassed us in hu- 
man culture. No, it was not culture nor progress, 
but the power of God in Christianity, that has ef- 
fected this and the other radical reforms in the world. 
It was the teaching of Christ, the example of Christ, 
the personality of Christ, that accomplished what no 
human power could do. 

Christ thus becomes His own credential. He 
stands forth the supreme world figure. His per- 
sonality alone entitles Him to credence. KEverything 


THE WORLD AFTER CHRIST 211 


that He said and did and was, proclaims Him divine. 
As divine, He Himself, His mission and the estab- 
lishment of Christianity, are intelligible. Not 
divine, He Himself, His mission and the establish- 
ment of Christianity, are a greater mystery than any 
His réligion proposes. 

We have now presented the religion of Jesus 
Christ and its credentials to the jury of our readers. 

Before concluding this chapter on the marvelous 
results brought about by Christianity, I wish to say 
that the world is by no means perfect now. Many 
evils exist. But the great, crying, irremediable evils 
of pre-Christian ages have disappeared, or cease to 
exist as social institutions. Idolatry, open impurity, 
the debasement of women, infanticide, maltreatment 
of the aged and infirm, slavery and the fate of 
prisoners of war, all these exist no longer. 

That is a list of reforms effected by Christianity, 
and is of itself sufficient to stamp it as divine. If 
any one of these evils existed today, the whole com- 
munity would rise up in alarm and protest. Yet, 
in the days before Christ, no one was shocked by 
such things and no one saw any remedy for them. 
And there was no remedy, except from above. 
Christianity actually remedied these curses of pagan 
civilization and converted them into the blessings of 
modern Christian civilization. 

The selfishness and lust of mankind still cause un- 
told misery in the world. But this is not because of 


212 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


Christian principles, but in spite of them. When- 
ever or wherever you find wrong-doing, you will also 
find that the principles of Christianity have been 
ignored or set aside. Christ was the Light of the 
world, ‘and the light shineth in darkness, and the 
darkness did not comprehend it.” ** Christianity 
likewise is the Light of the world, but the world fre- 
quently prefers darkness for its dark deeds and closes 
out the light. But that is not the fault of the light, 
but of those who wilfully blind themselves. 

Unto those who love the light and the truth, the 
great changes wrought in the world by Christianity 
are the soundest credential for its truth. No human 
institution can parallel or approach the transforma- 
tion it effected. By its record, therefore, it shows 
divine. 


11 John, 1. 5. 


CHAPTER XI 
CHRISTIANITY AND MEN OF GENIUS 


FE’ a bank or a corporation of any kind wishes to 
obtain the confidence and support of the public, 
it endeavors to enroll on its list of directors 

men of high standing in the community. The very 
fact that persons of exceptional integrity and busi- 
ness acumen are associated with a concern is a 
splendid recommendation for it. I intend to show 
that the religion of Jesus Christ has as its adherents 
and supporters the greatest geniuses of mankind from 
the very beginning of Christianity. 

There are many people who do not do their own 
thinking. In fact, most people do not. And yet in 
a subtle way, they do think. Frequently they think 
more logically than professed thinkers. They draw 
a rational conclusion without going through the in- 
tricacies of reasoning. If they observe that a man 
who is in every way their superior, and who has 
facilities for investigation which they have not, and 
if his conclusion accords with common sense, they 
judge that they are not far wrong in following him. 

We see this in military matters, where the com- 
mon soldier leaves the thinking to his commanding 


officer. Of course in military affairs such subordi- 
213 


214 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


nation is obligatory. But in other affairs of life, 
observe how the generality of men form their judg- 
ment althogether on the opinion of experts. 

In the stock market, thousands would risk all their 
capital on a tip from one of the great leaders of 
finance. Andrew Carnegie relates that he got his 
start in life by such a tip from a friend in the finan- 
cial world. He put such faith in the judgment of 
his adviser that he mortgaged his humble home to 
raise $250 for his first investment. Carnegie was 
by no means a man incapable of figuring out things 
for himself, but he realized that the other man was 
altogether superior to him at the time. So, without 
knowing the ins and outs of tne matter, he used com- 
mon sense and took a short cut to a true conclusion 
by recognizing that the judgment of a superior man 
was better than his own. 

And most people do that. That is why an enter- 
prise likes to have a good array of names associated 
with it. But all this is too commonplace to need 
more than a mere reference. I have referred to it in 
order to bespeak a similar attitude towards the great 
geniuses of the world who have given their adherence 
to Christianity. 

Some opponents of Christianity point with pride to 
latter day infidel and rationalistic thinkers, and pro- 
claim that these great men are proof that Chris- 
tianity cannot stand the searching light of modern 
scientific investigation. Indeed! I intend, there- 


MEN OF GENIUS 215 


fore, to show that nearly every man of genius for the 
past two thousand years has been a Christian. 

When I say a man of genius, I do not mean a man 
who has made a lot of money, or a man who has 
accidentally discovered something new in the ma- 
terial world, or one who has broached some strange 
theory which stultifies all mankind who preceded 
him. A genius for money or novelty may be a mono- 
maniac. 

Some great business men and some notable in- 
ventors have never given their minds to anything but 
the matter directly before them. They know as 
little about the problems which have engaged the 
world of thought as a gunner knows about the manu- 
facture of steel. To quote them, therefore, as su- 
perior men who have rejected Christianity is like 
quoting an aviation ace on astronomy. Jor the most 
part, they know nothing at all about Christianity, 
and what they do know is usually false. Their very 
prominence in worldly affairs is frequently due to the 
fact that they devoted all their time and thought to 
the one thing which is their specialty. 

I know, of course, that there are many captains of 
industry, and many inventors, who are conversant 
with the religious thought of the day, but their judg- 
ment has value, not so much in matters religious, as 
in affairs of business or mechanics. Because a man 
is a great architect, you would not engage him as a 
physician. 


216 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


So, in the realm of thought, when we consider the 
minds which command respect, we must look to the 
geniuses in the world of ideas. And among men of 
ideas, we must consider those whose work has built 
up and advanced human culture and welfare, rather 
than the freaks who, from century to century, like 
meteors have shot across the intellectual firmament, 
only to burn themselves out by their own absurdity. 
Innumerable are the freak thinkers who have given 
nothing to the world but an intellectual shock. Dur- 
ing their brief day, or night, they seem to be new 
luminaries, but when the novelty of it is over, they 
are not found in the firmament of thinkers. 

Now if we look at the really substantial men of 
thought, we shall find that they have giyen their 
firm allegiance to Christianity. Presently I shall 
enumerate the great scholars of the world, and we 
shall see where they stand. I shall also be very 
frank and give alongside the notable men who are 
opposed to Christianity. You will notice this dif- 
ference between the names on the Christian and anti- 
Christian lists, namely that the Christian men, for 
the most part, are recognized geniuses, whose place 
in history is like that of the fixed stars in the firma- 
ment. The anti-Christians are men who have at- 
tained a following here or there, and for a time. 

A few, like Kant, linger on and die slowly, but no 
one expects them to last, except their ardent fol- 


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MEN OF GENIUS 217 


lowers. After all, Kant is dead only a century, and 
he is the greatest on the list, yet his system has 
plunged the world into such disorder that it will take 
centuries of sound thought to undo his work. But 
it will be undone. New intellectual maladies may 
come, but this will go. 

As Kant is the standard-bearer and chief luminary 
of the anti-Christian forces, the man who is the 
intellectual basis of modern irreligion, I shall briefly 
touch on a few things which will show a logical man 
that he and his system are discredited. I pass over 
the consequences of his system on mankind, which 
alone demonstrate its falseness, for the truth never 
runs counter to the real progress and welfare of the 
human race. ) 

I know it is a bold thing to attempt by a stroke 
to overturn an idol like Kant. But frequently a 
child has clearer vision than his elders simply be- 
cause he sees what he sees, and not what he thinks he 
sees. Kant and his class get a following because of 
the intellectual haze that surrounds them. Some 
people imagine they are thinkers if they adhere to a 
master who is incomprehensible. In proportion as 
they cannot understand him, they flatter themselves 
that they belong to an intellectual movement. 

There are others who follow anyone who sets him- 
self up against the past. And besides, there is a 
multitude which gladly follows the leader who pro- 


218 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


claims that his followers are emancipated from the 
obligations which have hitherto bound the human 
race. A guide who has to grope his way and to 
return and start over again is not a true guide. A 
wayfarer can do that himself without a guide. 

Now Kant is that kind of an intellectual guide, 
and for that simple reason he is discredited. This is 
not merely my own assertion. It is the judgment of 
men who stand high in the world of modern thinkers. 
Schopenhauer, an ardent admirer of Kant, says that 
in the second edition of the “ Critique of Pure Rea- 
son,’ the Kantian bible, the author changed it into a 
“ self-contradictory and mutilated work.” The elder 
Jacobi, Michelet, and others, were of the same 
opinion. Now truth never changes. No matter 


what halo of obscurity Kant surrounds himself with, 


he shows false under scrutiny. 

On some of the disciples of Kant, the same Scho- 
penhauer thus comments: ‘“ The lowest stage of de- 
gradation was reached by Hegel, . . . who turned 
philosophy into an instrument of obscurantism.. . 
and drew over her a veil of the emptiest verbiage and 
the most senseless hodge-podge ever heard out of 
Bedlam.” ? Professor Ferrier confirms the judg- 
ment of Schopenhauer by the following drastic state- 
ment: “ Who has ever yet uttered one intelligible 


1“ Critique of Pure Reason,” translator’s Preface, pp. XI, 
XIV. Mr. Meiklejohn. 

2“ QLogic of Hegel,” Wallace, Dublin Review, July, 1894, p. 
224, 


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MEN OF GENIUS 219 


word about Hegel? Not one of his countryman, not 
any foreigner, seldom even himself.” 8 

Kant, Hegel & Co., are all dwellers in the Realm 
of Shadows, the title which Hegel gives to his own 
system.* Sydney Smith, a man of keen intellectual 
perception, was unable to penetrate this land of 
shadows.® He felt like a man lost in a forest when 
he was among these would-be guides. 

I could go on indefinitely to substantiate the hazi- 
ness and uncertainty of these men and their follow- 
ers, who pose as the light of the intellectual world. 
But much proof is not needed when they and their 
followers, instead of illuminating the path of man- 
kind, obscure it. This is not a philosophic or 
analytic treatise, but just a common sense view of a 
matter which is a mystery to many. People nowa- 
days often wonder why some of the famous scholars 
of the period are anti-Christian. They are so be- 
cause they follow leaders like Kant and Hegel, who 
could not even guide themselves. And they follow 
such leaders because it is an intellectual fad. 

Pascal says that a great writer is one who presents 
lofty things so clearly that they seem simple to in- 
ferior minds. Judged by this standard, most of the 
masters of the modern school of thought need masters 
themselves. I hope I am not arbitrary in saying 

3 ‘Secret of Hegel,” Stirling, Vol. I, p. XXIV. 


4 Dub. Rev., July, 1894. 
5“ Moral Philosophy,” p. 54. Longmans, 1850. 


220 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


this. JI do not mean to be. I do not set myself 
against an intellectual trend, but against an in- 
tellectual twist. 

Hear what Edmund Burke has to say on the sub- 
ject: “Certain .compositions are admired by 
credulous ignorance for no other reason than because 
they were not understood, the generality being con- 
tent to admire because it is the fashion to admire. 
If the work under these circumstances be pompous 
and unmeaning, its success is sure, as its pomp 
dazzles and its vacancy puzzles, both which are ad- 
mirable ingredients to procure respect.’ ° 

Mr. Sterling, an admirer of the philosophy of 
which Kant and Hegel are the princes, writes: 
“We possess writers of the highest ability in them- 
selves, and of the most consummate accomplishment 
as to all learning requisite,— Sir William Hamilton, 
Coleridge, De Quincy, for example,— who have in- 
stituted each of them his own special inquest into the 
matter, and who all agree in assuring us of the self- 
contradictory, and indeed, nugatory, nature of the 
entire industry, from Kant who began it, to Hegel 
and Schelling who finished it.” 7 

It is because few have taken the trouble to analyze 
this modern opponent of Christianity that he still 
has a following. It has been said that only children 
and barbarians take people at their own valuation. 


6 Prior’s “ Life of Burke,” 1, 430. 
7“Secret of Hegel,” I, Pref. p. XX, Stirling. 


4 


MEN: OF GENIUS 221 


These prophets of free thought dogmatize and pose 
as if they were infallible and omnipotent, and be- 
cause they proclaim a gospel which flatters man’s 
pride and passions, they get a following. But if we 
follow Kant & Co., we must say farewell not only to 
common sense, but to the great masters of thought 
throughout the ages. If we take Kant as a guide, 
we must abandon Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, 
Bacon, Pascal, Newton, Leibnitz, Burke, Cuvier and 
Pasteur. 

“You change, therefore you are not true,” was 
the dictum of Bossuet, which his opponents could 
never answer. Kant and Fichte and Hegel changed. 
The truth has never changed. If a witness changes 
his statement in a court of law, his testimony does 
not count. ‘That is*why Christianity cannot change. 
If it should, it would not be entitled to credence. 
“ Rationalists,” says Lord Bacon, “ are like spiders; 
they spin all out of their own bowels. But give me a 
philosopher who, like the bee, hath a middle faculty, 
gathering from abroad, but digesting that which is 
gathered by his own virtue.” § 

Some people think that the world will have to come 
to terms with this new Culture of the Kantian 
school. But it is this Culture itself which will have 
to come to terms with reason. Like a boomerang, 
it is coming back on itself by the consequences of its 
own false principles. The absolutism which it gen- 

8 “ Essays,” Chandos ed., p. 386. 


222 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


erated, instead of setting men free, has enthralled 
them. It pretends to liberate man from any higher 
law than himself, whereas in point of fact it forges 
a chain for his enslavement. 

Mankind must fellow the law of the Gospel or the 
law of nature. There is no alternative. As nature 
is ordinarily influenced by passion, it has never yet 
been a safe guide. Witness the excesses beginning 
with Voltaire and by no means yet ended. In throw- 
ing off the yoke of God, man places on himself an 
unbearable weight. Never in the history of the 
world was mankind so rudely dealt with as in these 
days of materialistic domination. 

Bearing in mind, therefore, the difference between 
the fixed stars of the firmament and the flashing 
meteors of the sky, study this list of names of men 
who believed in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and 
of those who did not. You will observe that the be- 
lievers in Christianity were geniuses of the highest 
order, men for the most part whose efforts resulted 
in the substantial progress and happiness of man- 
kind. 

A thousand years from now their names will be 
as bright as they are today. They are fixed stars 
in the intellectual firmament. The others, on the 
contrary, have contributed little of positive value to 
the happiness of the world. Like meteors, they have 
attracted passing attention. 

In this list of Christian believers, I give no 


Pe a eI iF -' * rs 


MEN: OF GENIUS 223 


churchmen. Moreover, I pass over the galaxy of 
geniuses which dazzled early Christianity, Justin, 
Origen, Tertullian, Augustine, and a host of others, 
the like of whom the world may never see again, 
and all of whom were pagans before they became 
Christians, thus showing that their belief was not 
inherited, but the result of the investigation of 
genius. I pass over the great theologians of the 
wonderful Middle Ages, that period which is only 
now beginning to be appreciated as the brightest era 
of human welfare. I only mention in passing 
Thomas Aquinas, considered by the learned world 
the greatest genius of all time. 

Are you influenced by names, talent, renown? If 
so, there is no undertaking in this world so richly 
endowed with distinguished names as Christianity. 
Every man on the Christian list was a genius. 
Every one of them was constructive. Every one of 
them believed in the divinity of Jesus Christ. 

{I am not presenting all these men as ideals of 
Christian virtue. Some of them had strong passions 
and overstepped the lines of Christian morality, but 
they recognized that they were delinquent and re- 
gretted it. They did not glorify vice, as did some 
on the list of unbelief. Voltaire, who is the high- 
priest of infidelity, openly laughed at virtue, and led 
a life akin to that of swine. He lived in mud and 
died in it. Following passion as a guide, he became 
its victim, as all do. 


224 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


In this list I give no name of a person who was 
living at the beginning of the twentieth century. We 
are in no position to judge the men of our day. 
Pasteur and Huxley, the last named on each list, 


died in the year 1895. 
Christians 

Dante 

Petrarch 

Chaucer 

Erasmus 

Ariosto No unbeliey- 

Sir Thos. More |ers among the 

Copernicus writers of the 

Columbus civilized nations 

Spenser of Europe dur- 

Cervantes ing this period: 

Shakespeare 1265-1650. 

Bacon 

Galileo 

Kepler 

Harvey 

Descartes 

Milton 

Pascal 

Locke 

Newton 

Leibnitz 

Swift 

Johnson 

Burke 

Napoleon 

Cuvier 

Pasteur 


Unbelievers 

Spinosa 

Voltaire 

Rousseau Spinosa, a 
Hume Jewish  philos- 
Kant opher, may be 
Gibbon considered the 
Goethe father of mod- 
Hegel ern unbelief. 
Tyndall 

Huxley 


There are only two standards of morality for man- 


kind, the Gospel or nature. 


We must accept one or 


MEN OF GENIUS 225 


the other. As Christ said, ‘‘ he who is not with me, 
is against me.” Nature, as we know, is inclined 
to evil, Every man knows that his passions, if 
given rein, will ruin him. Man’s will is weak 
in the presence of certain temptations. What 
tempts one may not tempt another. But each 
one of us has some dominant passion. Unless 
that is controlled, it will run away with the best of 
us. 

The instinct of nature guides an animal aright. 
But man has reason instead of instinct to guide him. 
Reason, if listened to, will lead man properly, but 
the trouble is that ordinarily it is not listened to. 
The call of passion is frequently so loud that con- 
science, which is reason’s voice, is too often not 
heard. 

Nature, if man does his full part, will bring him 
to the accomplishment of his purpose in life. But 
it is because man rarely does his full part that 
nature unassisted from above does not suffice. Not 
that the Creator has made us defective. In giving 
us reason, He gives us the means of realizing. our 
need of Himself and His help, and if we do our part, 
He will make the weakest of us stronger than the 
strongest who stands alone. : 

Look at the noble examples in history of weak 
women and children who have risen to the loftiest 
heights of virtue by the Gospel. See the host of 
men (like ourselves), of strong passions, who have 


226 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


regulated their lives by the Gospel, and thereby have 
become better and made the world better. 

Nowadays it is the fashion in some quarters to say 
that Christianity is worn out. That has been said 
every century for the past twenty, but I challenge 
any man to show in the world today a more vital in- 
stitution than Christianity. 

Oh, yes, I know that some governments and some 
peoples have turned against Christ and His Gospel. 
That is an old story. It began twenty centuries ago. 
Jt began with Christ Himself. His own people re- 
jected Him. The Roman Empire persecuted Him. 
The Arians divided Him. But He is in the world 
today, and has more true subjects than any sovereign 
that ever reigned. More serve Him out of love than 
ever served human lord or ruler out of love or fear. 

Pilate condemned Jesus after adjudging Him not 
guilty. He went to death amidst the howls of a mob, 
many of whom He had healed of their ailments, and 
all of whom He had uplifted by His words of wisdom 
and love. But men hostile to His sublime teaching 
went among the people and proved that propaganda 
was as effective then as now. They who before had 
acclaimed Him the Messiah, now clamored for His 
erucifixion. 

That is the way of the world,— benefits forgot. 
All the good, the real good, that is in the world to 
day is the result of Christianity. And this is the 
world that now turns against God and His Christ. 


MEN OF GENIUS 227 


But Christ foretold it. This very rejection, there- 
fore, proves His mission. 

It occurs at once to inquire why should Christ 
and His religion be at the mercy of the world. Why 
does He not assert Himself? He does, unto them 
that do their part. But to those who are sufficient 
for themselves, spite of the fact that sad experience 
shows how insufficient they are for themselves, He 
stands as He stood before Herod, silent. But to 
Magdalen and to Peter and to the Thief on the cross, 
He showed Himself very God. 

And today throughout our land He thus shows 
Himself to millions. If modern Herods now scoff 
at Him, and the world ridicules Him, the hearts of 
hundreds of millions revere Him as King and adore 
Him as God. Unto the end the struggle will go 
on between Christ and the world. It is the great 
mystery. 

Why does God allow Christianity to be thus as- 
sailed? Why did He allow Christ Himself to be 
scorned? He respects our free will, that is the 
answer. He endowed us with liberty, and He will 
not take back His endowment. If there were no 
choice between good and evil, there would be no 
human liberty, for free will supposes choice. But 
God does all in His power, short of interfering with 
our free will, to win us over to good. And that be- 
cause it is for our own good. But man must use his 
reason and exert himself. Most men know next to 


2928 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


nothing about the Christian credentials. They have 
time for this project and that, but no time at all for 
the greatest thing of all time. 

Christianity is not a theory. It is a two thousand 
year old fact. Many people study that fact, if they 
study it at all, through the minds of those hostile to 
Christianity. The present generation is intoxicated 
with material ideas and values. The spiritual is 
crowded out. 

But was there ever greater misery in the world 
than today! The worship of material splendor and 
force has plunged mankind into an abyss of discon- 
tent, selfishness, cruelty and injustice. With all our 
boasted progress, were there ever more suicides? 
With life giving so much, there are so many, and 
those who have most, who find it not worth the 
living. , 

As Augustine has said, the heart is empty unless it 
holds Him who made it. And St. Paul reminds us 
that “‘ We have not here a lasting city, but seek one 
which is to come.” ® When that is realized, life 
will have a meaning. That is the Gospel message. 
That is Christianity. To as many as receive Him, 
Christ gives the power to become the children of 
God. That is the life of Faith. 

And millions are living that life. Christianity is 
not worn out or dead. It is the one thing in the 
world today that can set it right. But, as in the 

9 Heb, 13. 14. 


MEN OF GENIUS 229 


time of Christ Himself, man must do his part. The 
same Christianity is abroad today that made the 
Middle Ages (so much abused by enemy historians) 
the envy of all time. It can do the same for this 
generation, so surfeited with pride and luxury, but 
so empty of all that makes for content. 

If the scholars of today, who boast of their scien- 
tific methods, would go to the sources rather than to 
the poisoned streams of history, they would become 
champions of Christianity rather than its assailants. 
Men who are sutfliciently learned to pass judgment on 
a religion which has the adherence of so many men 
of genius, are learned enough to go to the right 
sources of information. How many do? 

Many do not play the game fair. They act like a 
judge who gets all the testimony in a case from one 
side. I ask you who read these lines, have you gone 
to Christian authorities for your estimate, or have 
you based your opinion on a magazine article or on 
hearsay evidence or on some local misrepresentative 
of Christianity? Or have you obtained your views 
from a direct antagonist of the supernatural? If SO, 
it is not fair. You would not do that in ordinary 
matters, and this is more than ordinary. 

The Christianity of Christ was assailed in His own 
day. The Christianity of Christ was a minority in 
His own day. The Christianity of Christ was Op- 
posed by the learned and the powerful of the Roman 
world. But the Christianity of Christ took that de 


930 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


cadent world and moulded it into Christian civiliza- 
tion. 

Tt will renew the world today, unless the pride 
and passion of man refuse their cooperation. But if 
Christianity does not take a hand in the work, that 
work will fail, as the world today has failed, spite 
of the materialistic efforts of those false leaders of 
thought who based their systems on human sufi- 
ciency alone, to the rejection of all help from the 
Maker and Ruler of the world. 

If you are ill and call in a physician, and then 
reject his prescription, you cannot blame him for 
your condition. Christ, the great Physician, pre- 
scribed once for all for mankind. He cannot be set 
aside without detriment to the world. 

Social justice and contentment are the very 
foundations of public welfare. There is no force in 
the world so capable of producing these essential ele- 
ments as Christianity. This is not an assertion, but 
the verdict of history. From the turmoil of barbaric 
invasion into which Europe was thrown by Hun and 
Goth and Vandal, Christianity fashioned the nations 
of modern Europe. That was a greater task than 
confronts her now. She rode that storm as she will 
ride this. Our fears are not for Christianity, but 
for the world without Christianity. 


CHAPTER XII 
THE WORLD RESTORER 


UDGING from the trend of the articles which 
now appear in serious reviews and books, it 
is evident that the world is dissatisfied with 

itself. And it should be. As a man sows, so shall 
he reap. No investment pays so poorly as selfish- 
ness. Rather, it bankrupts. Individual and corpo- 
rate selfishness has been the especial characteristic 
of the world during the past few centuries, And this, 
notwithstanding our philanthropists and our instru- 
mentalities of benevolence. In fact, the field for 
philanthropy and benevolence is so large because of 
the prevailing selfishness. 

What has created the multitude of beneficiaries 
throughout the civilized world but the injustice of 
those in power and the selfishness of those who pos- 
sess a superabundance. It was not always so. In 
former days there was less production and poorer 
facilities for transportation,—and less distress. 
Now, when the world is at the peak of production, 
misery is at its maximum. Millions are barely ex- 
isting. I do not speak of devastated Europe, but of 


plentiful America. And while the multitude is 
231 


232 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


scantily fed and clothed, our millionaires are mul- 
tiplying, multiplying on misery, multiplying on pa- 
triotism. And the patriots, the men who risked life 
and limb, are now fighting for the very maintenance 
of the life they risked so patriotically. I am no rad- 
ical. Even these facts I should not put into print 
were they not on everyone’s lips. A physician must 
at times give a disagreeable diagnosis, but for the 
good of the patient and the patient’s friends. 

If selfishness is the characteristic of power, why 
should it not be the trait of those under? It is, but 
those under are helpless. But suppose they become 
strong, as strong as those on top? And they have, 
and they know it, and now the struggle is on between 
those in possession and those without possessions. 
Writers call it unrest. It may be the unrest of a 
voleano. It all depends. Now what caused it all, 
and what is the remedy? For it is useless to point 
out a sore on the body politic unless to heal it. Such 
a sore was on the Roman Empire when it went under. 
We are not stronger. As now, so then, the people 
were pacified for a time by food and shows, but the 
sore ate into the body, and the strongest Ruler of 
the world became a corpse, a prey to the vultures 
of the North. And the cause? The same,— selfish- 
ness. 

Selfishness is the cult of mankind unless man looks 
beyond. It is so natural. Why should a man not 
get all and enjoy all he can if he does not look be- 


THE WORLD RESTORER 233 


yond? Rationalistic moralists may be shocked at 
this. They may declare that decency, uprightness, 
fairness, dictate to a man moderation and considera- 
tion. It is one thing to dictate, another to follow 
the dictation. We know, we know from experience, 
that human nature jumps over the traces. We know 
that, although a few men here and there are a firm 
law of rectitude to themselves, most men follow pas- 
sion instead of rectitude. We have got to take man 
as he is, not as we would have him. And face to face 
with ourselves, do not the best of us at times feel 
very much ashamed of ourselves? So we must have 
something to help us to be better than our poor selves. 
Something to make us less selfish. That is the key 
to right living to social justice and content. Chris- 
tianity gives that key. 

And that is why religion is necessary. And if you 
wish to know why the world is now in unrest, it is 
because the world is irreligious. Religion of some 
kind is necessary to make man do his part in the 
world. or self-interest is so powerful that unless 
it is directed from above, it will lead man to gratify 
his passions spite of human considerations. We see 
this every day. Of course I understand that you can 
point to this man and that as examples of those who 
have no religion, and who are good to their friends 
and their families and just in their dealings with 
others. But do you realize that certain men find 
more satisfaction in acting thus than in doing other- 


234 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


wise? It is a form of selfishness,— a good form, I 
admit. A man may love a reputation as much as 
he loves himself. A man may be kind to others be- 
cause it is easier for him than to be unkind. What 
does all this mean but that a man is fortunate whose 
disposition is to-do and be good. But all men are 
not that way. And those who are, may meet a 
temptation of a new kind any day which will rouse 
new sentiments and create forbidden attractions. 
What then? Unless a man looks beyond, he is gone. 
And what is to make him look beyond except re- 
ligion? Christianity teaches us how to live right. 
It puts justice and charity first. Welfare beyond 
depends on virtue here. 

I have put the case for natural virtue most favor- 
ably. All men are not the fine specimens supposed 
above. Moreover, many of those thus favored owe 
it, in great part, to the Christian environment in 
which they have been reared. The generality of 
mankind craves what it has not got and what it can- 
not get. What is to remedy this craving? What is 
the prescription for this fever? Christ, the great 
Physician of the world, prescribed for mankind once 
for all. It is His Gospel that can calm the fevered 
brow of mankind and give contentment to the world. 
For He tells us that we are but wayfarers,, our home 
is not here but beyond, life is but the first stage of 
our journey. What matters this short step if it leads 
us to our Father’s home? That is the message 


THE WORLD RESTORER 235 


Christ brought into the world. “Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God and his justice, and all other things 
shall be added.” Does a miner digging in the 
western hills for gold mind the fatigue and the 
hardships? Not if he has prospects of gold. For 
he looks beyond and beholds ease and comforts. And 
Christ gives us prospects greater than those of earth, 
for He tells us that if we receive Him and live by 
Him, we shall be His brethren and the children of 
His Father in heaven. That teaching transforms 
society by transforming the individual. It is the 
only way. Read history. 

That is the remedy the world needs today, not 
only those who are under, but those who are on top, 
— especially those on top. If by nature they are 
better endowed than their fellows, or more fortunate 
in the struggle of life, Christ bids them remember 
justice. Not only justice, but also consideration and 
charity. Human nature can stand just so much. 
Those under are very patient. But there is a 
measure in all things. And a time comes when 
those under become mad, mad at the patriotic cant, 
the profiteering, the waste, the indifference of those 
above. Mad at the combination of capital to domi- 
nate them, mad at their helplessness to redress griev- 
ances. rom those on top they learn a lesson. They 
combine. If they cannot win, they can ruin. With 
backs against the wall, they will fight to destroy. 
Result, a cataclysm. That comes from those on top 


236 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


not taking the prescription of the great Physician. 
And those under? They have learned from those 
above that religion does not count. Evils which 
they would bear patiently, even contentedly, under 
the influence of religion, they now find absolutely 
maddening. 

There are those who say that Christianity has 
failed, that it has passed away, that it has had its 
day, that men of intellect can no longer give it 
allegiance. They said that fifteen hundred years 
ago. Rationalism never had such a champion as 
Augustine. He assailed Christianity so terribly 
that St. Ambrose had the following petition inserted 
in the public litanies: “A logica Augustunt, libera 
nos Domine!* Yet this dreadful foe became the 
firm champion of Christianity, its greatest champion 
in an era of great champions. No man ever lived 
who was a better spokesman for free thought than 
Augustine. No one could be a better witness to the 
greatness of natural wisdom. But his career also 
shows how “ reason by lust is swayed.” * Augustine 
fought Christianity harder than any modern oppon- 
ent, but he was so great that when he was defeated, 
he knew it. 

Some people fancy that it is only now that Chris- 
tianity is being assailed, but from the very beginning 

1Giry, Vie des Saints, 28 Aug. (From the arguments of 


Augustine, O Lord, deliver us.) 
2 Inferno, Canto V, 39. 


THE WORLD RESTORER 237 


it has been fought hard by the world. And it will 
be to the end. Christ has said it. That alone al- 
most makes Him divine. What leader of an under- 
taking ever predicted continual opposition? But He 
who declared that His followers would have opposi- 
tion, also proclaimed that they should not fear, for 
as He had overcome, so should they. 

They tell us now that Christianity is a minority. 
So was it in the days of Christ Himself and the 
Apostles. It was a minority when it worshipped in 
the catacombs and withstood the assaults of the Ro- 
man Empire. It was a minority when Hun and Goth 
and Vandal laid waste Europe. They tell us now that 
men of intellect cannot accept Christianity. But no 
institution in the history of the world has such a roster 
of genius as Christianity. When her present intel- 
lectual opponents dwindle to insignificance in his- 
tory, the names of those giants of intellect who gloried 
in being Christians will stand out large on the roll 
of the world’s greatest thinkers. They tell us now 
that men in position and power reject Christianity. 
It was those in position and power who rejected 
Christ Himself. Pilate could find no cause to con- 
demn Jesus, but he nevertheless condemned Him. 
The great ones today act in the same way,— expe- 
dientially, selfishly. They tell us that Christianity 
is for the ignorant and the superstitious. That was 
said in the days of the Cesars, but Justin and 
Origen and Tertullian left the ranks of the pagan 


238 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


philosophers to become associates of the lowly fol- 
lowers of Christ. And there are no scholars today 
superior to those Titans of intellect and erudition. 

They tell us that the scientific men of today can- 
not square science with Christianity. And they who 
speak thus, for the most part, know as much about 
Christianity as about the geography of the moon. 
Pasteur was a pretty fair scientist. He was also a 
sincere Christian. Sir Bertram Windle, F. R. S., 
is a fairly good scientist and also a champion of 
Christianity. Most of the scientific notables of to- 
day are so engrossed in physical phenomena that 
they never give a thought to anything else. They 
simply echo and pass on what someone has said on 
religion. A man might be a very good botanist, but 
hardly for that reason an authority on international 
law. I have talked with men who are absorbed in 
matters scientific and many of them do not know 
the A B C of Christianity. But that does not stop 
them from relegating it to the scrap. The scientists 
of Pliny’s day also rejected Christianity. But 
Christ established His religion on a better basis than 
the dicta of changeable scientists. Pliny is now but 
aname. Christianity is now a fact. 

Time is the best test of truth, for truth remains. 
Christianity is the only institution in the world to- 
day which remains unchanged from the days of 
Cesar Augustus. Everything else has passed away 
or-is passing. Everything else has changed or is 


THE WORLD RESTORER 239 


changing. This statement cannot be challenged ex- 
cept by those who do not know Christianity. I 
know of course that writers may point to the diversity 
of Christian sects. But they could do that in the 
day of Augustine. Arianism was a bigger division 
than anything of our day. But Arianism was not 
Christianity. It said it was. But Arianism de- 
cayed and died. Christianity was only beginning. 
Christianity is the religion of Jesus Christ, as 
taught once for all by Jesus Christ, and entrusted to 
His own instrumentality for perpetuating it un- 
changed to the end of the world. Christ did not fit 
out the bark of faith and entrust it to the waves 
without a pilot. It is the Christianity of Christ that 
we must consider, not the man-made substitute. And 
it is the Christianity of Christ that will restore the 
world. Unless we now turn to true Christianity, we 
shall turn to the conflicting passions of men. What 
that is we know from sad experience. The Chris- 
tianity of Christ took Europe when it was overrun 
by the barbarous hordes of the North, and fashioned 
it into the highest civilization and contentment in the 
history of the world. Read history; true history, 
not the propaganda of the enemy. It is said that the 
World War was won by propaganda. It is the most 
powerful of all weapons. It has been the greatest 
foe of Christ’s Christianity. During the war you 
perhaps wondered how certain men of education 
could hold certain views. It was propaganda. They 


240 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


based their judgment on enemy statements. It was 
not a question of facts and brains, but of propaganda. 

For two thousand years there has been a subtle 
propaganda against the Christianity of Christ. It 
would have destroyed over and over again anything 
but Christ’s Christianity. Look at it squarely in 
the face. Is there anything about Christ’s Chris- 
tianity that you do not in your heart admire? Is 
there anything about Christ’s Christianity that does 
not make for a better individual, a better family, a 
better community, a better state? Human passion 
comes in and clouds our judgment, because Christ’s 
Christianity demands of us a standard of life which 
imposes restraints on our passions. But if you were 
judging for others, and if you understood Christ’s 
Christianity and the needs of poor human nature, you 
would not hesitate to declare for true Christianity. 
Millions and millions in every part of the civilized 
world are living that Christianity today. They may 
be in the minority. So were they when Nero slan- 
dered them as the enemies of the State. There was 
a minority at Thermopyle and they apparently 
lost. But was there ever such a victory! Christ 
was a minority on Calvary. But where now is the 
majority that nailed Him to the cross by their 
propaganda! 

The grain of corn dies in order to live. Christ 
now lives in the hearts of countless followers. The 
world and its fashion changes and will pass away. 


THE WORLD RESTORER 241 


Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. 
The Christianity of Christ has survived the propa- 
ganda of the past. It has restored the world before. 
Jt will restore it again, spite of propaganda, if only 
the world will cooperate. Patient and Physician 
must work together. 


CHAPTER XIII 
YOUR VERDICT 


HAVE endeavored to put the case of Chris- 
tianity before you as it might be presented to 
a modern jury. In doing so, facts have been 
adduced which no judicial tribunal could throw out 
of court. On these facts alone Christianity rests its 
ease. <A judicial verdict is rendered only by setting 
aside preconceived notions bearing on the case, and 
accepting the evidence with open mind. 

We have shown that Christianity was the most 
radical reform ever introduced into the world. The 
world was heading down hill, but by this new power 
it was reversed. That reversal cost mankind more 
than any change or reform that was ever introduced 
among mankind. We know the opposition which or- 
dinary reforms meet with. This was the most ex- 
traordinary reform conceivable. 

Consequently, it stands to reason that to bring it 
about required some remarkable inducement. Where 
the acceptance meant so much, the very best creden- 
tials for the soundness of the reform were demanded 
and given. 

Any other supposition would mean that human na- 


ture was less exacting then than now. But it was 
242 


YOUR VERDICT 243 


the reverse. Men were more exacting then because 
scepticism was the order of the day. Philosophers 
and cynics abounded during the period of the intro- 
duction of Christianity. The Gospels and the Gos- 
pel veracity were examined by every means known 
to human ingenuity. 

It was against their will that the pagans admitted 
the Christian documents. For they did not want to 
admit a body of truths which would imply that they 
were in error and would restrain their license. But 
they admitted the Gospels and their teaching because 
the evidence was clear and strong. Some did not 
admit Christianity, just as some did not receive 

Christ Himself. But always there will be men who 
prefer darkness to light. 

The millions who accepted Christianity did so be- 
cause of the certainty of the evidence. Modern criti- 
cal scholarship has confirmed the judgment of these 
early believers. ‘The most learned men of literature, 
the most critical scientific historians, are now agreed, 
as a body, that the Gospels were written in Apostolic 
times, by Apostolic men, and that they record the 
truth. 

Harnack, a leader among liberal thinkers, a most 
exact man of research, recognizes in the Founder of 
Christianity a person altogether different from and 
superior to the rest of mankind. No scientific in- 
vestigator ever strove harder to discover flaws in the 
Christian credentials. And with what results?, He 


244 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


affirms that no documents of history are more trust- 
worthy than the Gospels.* 

Jt is from these documents we have taken the facts 
presented to you. You cannot afford to make light 
of testimony from such authentic sources. In any 
court of law, before any jury, it would be admitted. 
That is why I ask a judicial and not a prejudicial 
hearing. 

Sometimes a trial gets a change of venue because it 
is realized a just verdict cannot be obtained in the 
place where the court sits. The jury in certain en- 
vironments are not capable of an impartial considera- 
tion of the evidence. They are under prejudice from 
their surroundings. Are you in need of a change of 
venue? Must you change your attitude of mind in 
order to weigh this matter aright ? 

This same Harnack, prince of free-thiakers, speak- 
ing of Christ’s character, says: ‘‘ One ray of His 
light changes the inner life of man. . . . His Gospel 
eannot be replaced by anything else. . . . He has 
done many wonderful deeds, which are partly inex- 
plicable to this day. . . . Without scientific teach- 
ing, without inner struggles, He has displayed a 
mighty, original teaching power, and poured forth 
truths in abundance, solely from His own rich mind. 
. . . The personality of Christ is and remains the 
only foundation of all moral culture.” ? 


1“ Nature of Christianity,” p. 11. 
2“ Nature of Christianity,” c. I. 


YOUR VERDICT 245 


At the World’s Congress for religious liberty, held 
in Berlin, 1911, Harnack stated: “It is an assured 
fact that God made this same Jesus, to be the Lord 
and Christ for mankind; and that faith in Him has 
always produced children of God, and produces them 
still.” Why then did not Harnack believe that 
Christ was God? For the same reason that the 
Jewish high priests and the Scribes and Pharisees 
did not believe. 

Faith is a gift to the humble, not to the scientific 
only. Faith is not an intellectual deduction, but a 
gift of God. And God gives it to everyone who does 
his own part to deserve it. Intellect may lead a man 
to see evidence, but will not force him to accept it if 
the acceptance tends to humble his pride. 

For that reason, Jesus said: “Unless you enter 
the kingdom of heaven as little children, ye shall not 
enter.”’ Little children trust and love their parents. 
God wants our trust and our love. The trust of a 
child, although so complete, is well placed. It is 
founded on the highest reason, for it is founded on 
nature. 

And so our faith in God is not a mere rational | 
deduction. That is why so many learned people say 
such beautiful things about Christianity, and yet do 
not become believers in the true divinity of Christ 
nor in His divine mission. 

I have laid stress on the testimony of a man like 
Harnack because he cannot be suspected of credulity. 


946 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


No man ever examined the Christian sources more 
minutely than he, and his conclusion was that they 
stand as veritable history. 

Hence, my dear jurors, do not settle the matter 
with a shrug of the shoulders, or wave it aside as be- 
neath your intellectual consideration. Weigh the 
facts as established with open and honest mind. 
There is no use examining into a case if beforehand 
your mind is absolutely fixed. For that reason, in a 
court of law, a juror is excused if he says he has made 
up his mind inflexibly about the matter. 

Now resting the case of Christianity on the firm 
basis of the certified truth of the records, we find 
that they contain credentials of the divine mission 
of Christ, which are the strongest and soundest that 
can be presented for human consideraiton. 

The Resurrection of Christ, in its every detail, 
forms a credential that is unassailable by any fair 
and enlightened mind. We have seen how Christ 
Himself pointed to it before its occurrence as the 
sign from heaven that His mission was from God. 
And after its occurrence, it was the sign always re- 
ferred to by the Apostles as the credential for their 
mission. It was a sign so certain and so striking 
that the Apostles gave their lives for the religion it 
attested, and millions of pagans changed from 
idolatry to Christianity in virtue of it. 

The sign of the Resurrection was the more won- 
derful in that it was also a prophecy fulfilled. For 


YOUR VERDICT 247 


Christ had distinctly and accurately foretold it, and 
the Jewish leaders are on record as knowing of the 
prophecy and taking precautions against its fulfil- 
ment, but in vain. 

Finally, we have studied the personality and the 
teaching of Jesus Christ Himself, and we have 
found that He is His own best credential. He spoke 
as God, He lived as God, He performed the deeds of 
God, He declared He was God. If His claims to | 
divinity are astounding, so are the deeds by which 
He substantiated them. If He spoke as God, His 
actions were also God-like. Some may try to explain 
away His words. They cannot explain away His 
deeds. 

If His actions were therefore divine, and if they 
were performed to substantiate His divine claims, 
it was God Himself from above putting His seal 
on Christ, His claims and His mission. Whatever, 
therefore, Christ said for our instruction has the 
sanction of God Himself. 

Before finally leaving this world, Jesus Christ es- 
tablished a Church to continue until the end of time 
the mission which He inaugurated. He gave this 
Church His absolute guarantee that He would be | 
with it always, and that it should never err in teach- 
ing mankind the things which He came down from 
heaven to impart. 

In matters of faith and morals, the Church of 
Christ speaks as Christ Himself. Not that the men 


248 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


who constitute the teaching Church are wiser than 
other men, but that, by God’s special guidance, they 
are safeguarded as representatives of Jesus Christ in 
teaching what He commanded them to teach. Chris- 
tianity thus established acted as a truly divine agency 
in the world, transforming it in its most vital aspects, 
uprooting century old vices and injustices and prac- 
tices which were beyond any human power to remedy. 

Today, after twenty centuries, we behold the re- 
ligion of Jesus Christ spread all over the world. All 
the civilized peoples of the earth are dominated by 
Christian principles. We see flourishing everywhere 
the fruits of Christianity. Indeed, so radically has 
the world been changed by Jesus Christ that we 
shudder now to think of the condition of mankind 
before His coming. . 

And so thoroughly has His teaching transformed 
the human race that we now look upon as natural 
and ordinary a condition of affairs which was abso- 
lutely unknown and unhoped for by those who lived 
before Christianity. We need to weigh and to insist 
on this point. ‘There are many today living in peace 
and security and justice who never even dream that 
this is directly due to Christianity. 

There were laws and civilizations and supreme 
human endeavors before Christianity, but they were 
not able to do away with slavery, or the vile condition 
_ of women, or open vice, or the slaying of prisoners 
of war, or idol worship, or neglect and cruelty in 


YOUR VERDICT 249 


regard to the aged, the infirm and the unfortunate. 
These results of Christianity are like the miracles in 
regard to Christ, they prove its divinity. 

The very fact that Christianity has existed all 
these centuries is a miracle. But she has not merely 
existed, she has grown and developed until now she 
exerts her sway over the whole civilized world. She 
is thus fulfilling Christ’s prophecy that He would be 
with her always. 

For unless He were with her, she had long since 
passed away. Other institutions much more power- 
ful, humanly considered, have broken up and dis- 
appeared. But it is the divine in Christianity that 
maintains it, and maintains it against the greatest 
odds that any institution ever faced. All this is the 
seal of divinity on it. 

Other institutions find it hard to maintain even a 
national or racial existence. Christianity burst the 
bonds of nation and race and embraces all nations 
and races. She has carried out the commission given 
her by her Founder to teach all nations. Gradually 
her voice will be heard further and further until no 
race or place in the world will be outside her influ- 
ence. Today Christian principles and Christian 
worship characterize most of the advanced peoples of 
the world. 

God leaves nations free as well as individuals. As 
some of the people who saw and heard Him when He 
was on earth refused to abide by Him, so it is today 


250 CREDENTIALS OF .CHRISTIANITY 


with some people and some nations. But it is not 
the fault of the Light. “ The Light shineth in dark- 
ness and the darkness did not comprehend it.” 

The Light now shineth on you. Do you wish to 
remain in darkness? For the sake of being your 
own guide, will you refuse the hand of God which 
He offers you? Do you prefer to be in darkness in 
order to have your own way, or will you accept the 
light and live God’s way? ‘That is the whole issue. 
The case of Christianity is clear, it is certain. or 
the sake of being a law unto yourself, will you remain 
outside ¢ 

We may live as we wish. We may be our own 
law if we will. God has left us free. But He has 
not left us without responsibility. If we choose to 
use our liberty to serve ourselves rather than to serve 
Him, He will let us, but He will judge us by His 
law, not by ours. ‘If thou wilt enter into life ever- 
lasting, keep the commandments.” 

Nor can you say, as some do, that you would be- 
lieve in the divinity of Christ if you thought He 
meant just what He said? God foresaw that objec- 
tion and prepared the answer to it. He knew He 
would not be on earth always to explain His speech 
and His enactments. So He constituted His Church 
and endowed it with His own power, and made it 
His voice in the world, saying: ‘‘ He that heareth 
you heareth me.” 

Now this Church tells us solemnly that Christ is 


YOUR VERDICT 251 


the true Son of God. Being officially appointed by 
God to interpret His words, she declares that He is 
true God of true God. Jesus Christ, by the approval 
of miracles, showed that He was from God, since only 
divine power can effect miracles. His mission being 
thus stamped as divine by God, it was impossible for 
Him as a divine messenger to deceive. 

When therefore He established His Church and 
guaranteed it against error, 1t was a divine guar- 
antee. The Chureh with this divine guarantee of 
truth affirms the real nature of her Founder. She 
declares magisterially that Jesus Christ is the true 
and only begotten Son of God. Hence, even if Christ 
said nothing about His divinity, but merely showed 
that His mission was from God, His divinity would 
be manifest from the teaching of the Church, which 
was divinely guaranteed by Him to teach the truth 
always. 

Now no one can reasonably deny that Christ is at | 
least a messenger from God. Taking therefore the 
very lowest estimate of Him, He, as a divine mes- 
senger, established a Church, and, as the envoy of 
God, declared it would never err. God could not 
permit His envoy to give a false guarantee. There- 
fore the Church is divinely guided to teach the truth. 
And the fundamental teaching of the Church always 
has been that Jesus Christ is the real Son of God. I 
lay stress on this point, even to repetition, because 
the divinity of Christ is the basis of Christianity. 


252 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


Christ did not leave us orphans. On His depar- 
ture, He left a representative that was always to be 
the Way, the Truth and the Life, as He Himself was 
when among mankind. ‘This representative is His 
Church. If it were not for the establishment of the 
Church, His teaching would very soon have disap- 
peared or been distorted. 

Through and by the Church, Christianity was es- 
tablished. Christianity does not exist by itself as a 
separate entity. It is the spirit of Christ in the 
world engendered by the activities of the living 
Church. It is the result of the teaching and minis- 
trations and example of those commissioned by 
Christ to carry on His work. If there were no living 
and visible Church to safeguard and propagate the 
teaching of Christ, there would be no Christianity. 

Some people think that Christianity is an imma- 
terial something existing by itself and influencing 
mankind. It is nothing of the sort. It is merely 
the expression and practice of the teaching and in- 
fluence of the living Church. Remove the Church, 
and Christianity would soon disappear, just as a 
man’s shadow disappears with himself. 

It is necessary to realize this fully, for otherwise 
we might fancy that it is sufficient to admire and 
approve of Christianity in order to maintain its 
wonderful influence in the world. No, if we wish 
the world to continue Christian, we must do our part 
to be true members of Christ’s Church. “Not every 


YOUR VERDICT 253 


one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the 
kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my 
Father who is in heaven.” 

Now it is God’s will that we be faithful members 
of the Church He established on earth. For it is by 
living as that Church directs that we shall fulfil our 
duty here and reach the eternal inheritance for which 
we were made. Christ came on earth in order to 
point out for us mortals the way to immortality. In 
His Church He has left the helps and directions for 
the attainment of that blessed destiny. But man 
must use the help and follow the directions. Merely 
nominal Christianity is no Christianity. It is worse, 
it libels Christianity. 

In giving our verdict, therefore, on Christianity, 
it must be practically given. Mere admiration is 
nothing. Some of the most depraved of mankind 
have given that. Our answer must be the acceptance 
of Christianity in our lives. We must belong to the 
Church of God and live by its precepts. 

That Church is in the world today, as Christ 
guaranteed it would be. And it is not hard to find 
it. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is with it as He 
foretold. Being God, all that He says is so. Look 
around you, therefore, and you will recognize that 
Church. 

Remember that it must be the Church which 
teaches just what He taught, and which goes right 
back to Christ Himself, its Founder. Any Church 


254 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


which fails in one iota to proclaim the doctrine which 
He left with His Apostles and which He commanded 
them to impart to all nations, is not His Church. 
Man cannot improve on God’s work. That is why 
the Church of God can not compromise. 

When Christ commissioned His Apostles to teach 
to the world whatsoever things He commanded them, 
He gave them definite doctrines which are unchange- 
able. To alter in any particular the body of doctrine 
He gave to the world is to be false to Him. It is 
worse than false, it is an insult. If a staff officer 
should change the instructions of his commander-in- 
chief, he would be court-martialled and shot. Yet a 
commander-in-chief may be mistaken. 

But Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cannot be mis- 
taken, and no conditions can arise which He did not 
know at the time when He gave once for all His 
teaching to mankind. Truth never changes. Only 
error is subject to revision. We have never had to 
change the multiplication table. God’s teaching is as 
true as mathematics. 

From the very beginning of Christianity, that 
teaching was embodied fundamentally in the 
Apostles’ Creed. That symbol of faith which came 
from Christ and His Apostles is the keystone of the 
Christian arch which joins earth and heaven. It is 
the corner stone of the true Church of Christ which 
He constructed with His own divine hands. No 


YOUR VERDICT 255 


man or body of men may alter the architecture of the 
divine architect. 

Look around you, therefore, and see what Church 
is established, not here or there, not in this nation or 
that, but in every nation of the world. Look for the 
Church whose branches extend over the world and yet 
are united vitally with one trunk. 

See the Church which has been in the world since 
the day of Christ, and has held sacredly to every 
article of belief which He revealed. Consider the 
Church which, during all the changes of the ages, has 
not changed. Behold the Church which, though 
adapting herself to all the requirements of mankind 
in every age and land, has remained always the same, 
as truth remains always the same. J inally, look for 
that Church which holds now in every particular the 
Apostles’ Creed, that symbol of faith established in 
the first days of Christianity. 

That Church is the true Church of Christ. He 
established one Church and one Faith. That Faith 
was summarized in the Apostles’ Creed. His true 
Church today must hold that Creed literally and 
entirely. That Creed proclaims God as the Creator 
of the world, and Jesus Christ, His only begotten 
Son, who for us became man. It announces the 
resurrection of the body and life everlasting, and it 
declares that every human being must stand judg- 
ment before the tribunal of Jesus Christ. 


256 CREDENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY 


These and other things it proclaims, and no 
Church that does not proclaim and insist on the very 
same truths is His. Take the Apostles’ Creed as 
your test of Christianity, and if you desire to be a 
true follower of Jesus Christ, become a living mem- 
ber of the Church which holds absolutely and un- 
equivocally every article of that Creed. 

No one but God, who gave that Creed, through the 
Apostles, is entitled to change it. No Church is 
authorized to revise or minimize it. That is why the 
true Church can make no compromise in regard to 
Faith. It must be transmitted just as it is from 
generation to generation unto the end of the world. 
And it will be, for Christ Himself has said it, and 
He is with His Church always. 

Look, therefore, for the Church which has ever, 
and shall ever, proclaim the truths of the Apostles’ 
Creed. That is the Church which inaugurated Chris- 
tianity, which continued Christianity and which will 
maintain Christianity to the end. 

If then you are convinced of the truth of Chris- 
tianity, take the logical step and live a true member 
of that Church which now, as ever, holds unquali- 
fiedly and uncompromisingly The Apostles’ Creed: 
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator 
of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only 
Son, our Lord: who was conceived by the Holy 
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under 
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. 


YOUR VERDICT 257 


He descended into hell; the third day He rose again 
from the dead; He ascended into heaven, sitteth at 
the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from 
thence He shall come to judge the living and the 
dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholie 
Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of 
sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life ever- 
lasting. Amen. 


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